


Love Live! Hellfire!!

by Lydinya, Yousobros



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Blood and Gore, Dark Fantasy, Death, Horror, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:27:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26049520
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lydinya/pseuds/Lydinya, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yousobros/pseuds/Yousobros
Summary: After yet another successful Live Show, the members of the infamous school idol group Aqours set plans to meet the next day for practice. However, something is wrong. One by one, each girl goes missing. Ruby takes on the quest to find the others, that is, before she gets struck unconscious in her room by someone unknown. Now, waking up in an area not at all familiar to her, she has to find her way out. In this place however, she is not alone...
Comments: 22
Kudos: 29





	1. Absence

**Author's Note:**

> Main writer: Lydinya (https://twitter.com/Lydinya)
> 
> Director: Darky (https://twitter.com/DarkyVA)

_♫ Mirai no bokutachi wa kitto kotae o motteru hazu dakara ♫_

  
_♫ Honki de kakenukete ♫_

  
_♫ Chansu o tsukamaete ♫_

  
_♫ Hikaru kaze ni narou we got dream!!! ♫_

Sweat dripped down the nine girls’ faces as they sang out their final verse of the live show with all their might. Despite their aching muscles and raw voices, they couldn’t hide their beaming smiles as they looked upon the crowd while striking their final poses. All they could see were deranged lightsticks moving about the arena, but their ears were filled with the shouts of passionate fans cheering for them.

It was always their favorite part; looking at the sea of lightsticks happily dancing for them all. Nobody was left out as there was a fan for everybody, even if some gravitated more towards others. At the end of the day, everyone knew it took nine members to be Aqours, no more or less.

After taking in their moment of gratitude, it was time for the finale. They knew the ending process like the back of their hand. They all gathered towards the head of the stage in their usual order, Yoshiko always being the last to stumble along. All nine girls interlocked their shaking hands as they began stealing glances with one another, making sure each member was satisfied with the show they had just put on. Their small group moment was over before they knew it as all eyes were on their leader, awaiting her closing speech for the audience. With the deafening silence slowly taking over, the crowd was locked in suspense, holding their breath for what was to come next. Chika knew this was her moment. She puffed out her chest as she shouted out,

“Thank you so much for coming! I hope you all loved the show as much as we did. I can’t thank you all enough for coming out to see us. Though this will be one of our last shows as nine members, I hope you all will continue to support us as we will keep trying our best for all of you!”

The speech was never long since the orange-haired girl already knew everyone was running on the end of their adrenaline rush. She didn’t want to exhaust the group even more before they could make it home. Besides, she knew to save the biggest speech for when it was all of their final time as a group.

With this in mind, Chika began her bow as the girls followed along, not breaking their connected hands. After getting back up, they each took out their earpieces, allowing them to hear the crowd’s cheers roar upon the arena in their full glory. Chika was the first to break their aligned order as the rest followed along.

While waving towards the sections they felt they might have missed during the live show, the nine girls slowly made their way backstage, thanking the crowd a multitude of times for their support. They heard numerous shouts of each member’s name with stomps accompanying it, guaranteeing each member felt their passion for them.

* * *

Crickets could be heard chirping all around the weary school idols as they sat at the bus stop awaiting their ride. It was the last bus of the night and the girls barely made it. They couldn’t leave without a final encore performance, however doing so meant they had to run to make it to their destination on time. They all slumped upon the benches as they finally let their hearts calm down for the night. With 15 minutes to spare and no one around in sight, all the girls began talking amongst themselves.

Chika sat herself between You and Riko in order to be closest to her best friends. Still on a high from their show, Chika broke the fatigued atmosphere of the trio to shout out,

“Ah what a great show, huh? I love singing on that stage with all of you guys, it kind of makes me proud with how far we’ve come when it was just the three of us starting out.”

Chika looked towards the deserted road in front of them. It was only lit by the nearby street lights creating a dim atmosphere for the young girl. She whispered aloud while smiling,

“I wish it wasn’t over just yet. I just want more time on that stage.”

You giggled tiredly at the orange-haired girl’s statement. As her best friend, she knew that Chika was passionate about their art they created together as nine, but it was far too late at night to be having such sentimental conversations. She poked Chika’s cheek, keeping her finger in place, before saying aloud,

“Even if we did a 6 hour long live show it probably still wouldn’t be enough time for you, am I right, Chika-chan?”

With Riko on the other side listening in on the two’s banter, she giggled from the young sailor’s accurate statement. She knew as well all about how Chika could get when thinking about how much farther they could go as a group, always wanting to push just a little more for everyone to truly shine. She repeated You’s actions as she poked Chika’s other cheek, holding her finger there as well, as she added,

“I don’t even think Kanan-chan could hold out that long, even with all of her intense training.”

With both You’s and Riko’s index fingers still at her cheeks, Chika pouted at them. They acted as if they were her parents, poking fun at her thoughts. Suddenly an idea popped into her head. With her voice muffled, she boasted out with confidence,

“How about we test that theory next time?”

The orange-haired girl raised her right arm up towards the star filled sky. With determination spread across her face, she shouted out,

“Come on girls, let’s do a 6 hour live show next time!”,

Before Riko or You could even respond back, their heads were guided towards a loud shushing noise coming from Dia as a sleepy Ruby laid upon her shoulder. Chika backed down from her high stance but not before a yawn began to sneak out. She removed her raised hand from the night sky to her yawning mouth as she let out a loud cry. Both Riko and You laugh at Chika’s dying energy as they proceeded to give her a side hug, encompassing the small mikan into a friend sandwich. You looked upon a tired Chika before telling her,

“We’ll see about that, Chika-chan.”

After sharing their fits of giggles, the second years proceeded to talk amongst themselves, mentally preparing for their next live show. They began their checklist of discussing the costumes, music, and lyrics for the next event with one another.

To the right of them, in their own little world, were the pairing of Kanan and Mari. They each were cuddled by one another, as they usually were. Mari had taken brochures from the tourist area and was explaining to Kanan all the places they could go when they had free time together. Kanan however was using Mari’s warmth to lull herself to sleep. Despite Kanan having more energy, she easily got tired at night since she was so programmed to wake up at the crack of dawn to help around her diving shop.

While occasionally opening one eye to see what Mari was talking about, Kanan continued to doze off on the blonde’s shoulder while hearing the usual “Shiny” under Mari’s breath.

Finally, the last four members sat upon the opposite side of the second year trio. Ruby rested her head upon Dia’s shoulder, fighting to stay awake. She didn’t want to bother her sister later if she were to have to wake her up for the bus. Ruby just wanted to prove that she was responsible enough to do things like this on her own, that way when Dia finally left for college, she wouldn’t be worried about her over the simplest things.

Next to the Kurosawa’s sat Hanamaru, eating her usual Noppo bread. The small first year was in her own little world when she was snacking upon her favorite edibles. Since all eight members were sitting down however, it left the unfortunate fate of Yoshiko to stand. She stood impatiently at the edge of the sidewalk, tapping her foot incessantly. The members paid no mind to her at first, believing she was still on a high from the show, until her fidgeting became worse as she started looking around the area. Hanamaru was the first to notice this unusual behavior from the blue-haired girl. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Hanamaru decided to ask what was on her mind,

“What are you waiting for, Yoshiko-chan?”

The fallen angel didn’t say anything but rather kept looking around, as if someone were watching the girls. Not satisfied with the silence and mysteriousness radiating from Yoshiko, Hanamaru decided inquire further, believing it would snap her out of her current mood,

“Yoshiko-chan, why don’t you spread your wings and fly home instead of waiting for the bus to arrive like the rest of us, zura?”

Yoshiko quickly snapped out of her anxious stance to turn around to face Hanamaru. With her eyebrows furrowed and face red in anger, she screeched back at her,

“I would be leaving behind my loyal little demons if I did that! Also, it’s YOHANE!”

Upon hearing the shouts, all the girls turned to the source of the noise. They knew Yoshiko would get riled up by these types of things, but it was so quiet around them, they half expected her to tone it down just a bit. Dia, being displeased by the loud yelling coming from Yoshiko, responded in an agitated shushed voice,

“Yoshiko-san, could you please be a little bit more quieter? Ruby is tired and wants to sleep!”

Yoshiko, still being vexed from Hanamaru’s taunting, began to yell out,

“It’s YOHA-”

However, her sentence was cut off upon making eye contact with the angry older Kurosawa. Looking down at the ground, Yoshiko let out in a calmer tone,

“Whatever, you girls don’t listen to me anyway.”

Ruby lifted her head up from Dia’s shoulder upon hearing Yoshiko’s defeated tone. She hated to hear when her friends weren’t happy, even if they technically deserved their scolding. Rubbing her emerald eyes, Ruby yawned out in her tired voice,

“No no, it's fine, I shouldn't be asleep yet anyway. I’ll just wait till we’re on the bus, it will be a long ride home anyway.”

Hearing Ruby defend her, Yoshiko struck her signature pose accompanied with her “evil” laugh. Now in her fallen angel persona, Yoshiko looked upon Ruby as she said in her calming deep voice,

“Thank you, little demon Ruby.”

Ruby couldn’t help but gulp nervously. When Yoshiko was in her “Fallen Angel” mode it always frightened her, but if Yoshiko was happy then she would play along. Before Yoshiko could continue on her lookout though, the bus suddenly appeared from the shadows, right behind her.

As the shuttle bus pulled near the girls, it honked as to signal them to hurry in. With the loud noise coming from the large machine, Yoshiko jumped from fright as it broke her out of her Yohane character. Everyone began to gather their things as they got onto the bus one by one.

As usual, each girl paired with one another for the ride home. Since there were only 9 members, it meant one would be left out, usually being Hanamaru. She often used the entire seat to lay upon with her snacks all the way in the back. On her right were the pairs of Ruby and Dia along with Chika and You. Across from the Kurosawa's were Mari and Kanan with Yoshiko and Riko in front of them. After each girl took their seat and got settled in for the long ride home, they all drifted to their own little world to pass the time.

As the bus engine rumbled, it filled the silence that was brought upon the exhausted girls. The night sky consumed the light all around them while the moon weakly guided their eyes to the figures of the trees they passed. Each girl distracted themselves with one another. Kanan was exhausted entirely by the time the bus ride started, with the soft bumps of the road to rock her to bed slowly. She slumped upon Mari, as if she were her own personal pillow, while keeping a firm grasp on her arm for comfort. Mari, however, was wide awake and used her free left hand to scroll mindlessly through her phone. Occasionally she looked over to Kanan to make sure she wasn’t drooling or seeing the little pictures she was taking of the sleeping diver.

Soft snores could be heard from the two best friends of Chika and You, as by now they were fast asleep like Kanan. Both girls leaned on one another while holding hands for comfort. It was a little habit that had never left them even as they got older, they always found their way back to each other as they held tight. With the occasional shift in movement when the bus would hit a large bump in the road, the girls laid in peace awaiting their final stop home.

Hanamaru, behind them all, enjoyed her free space as she laid down. Crunches could be heard as she was munching on her numerous snacks she had brought for the long trip. She was always wide awake during the ride home as she never could sleep without being in the comfort of her own room.

Yoshiko and Riko sat by one another, however, Riko was far too distracted by the glistening moonlight to converse with the young girl. Taking this free time, Yoshiko decided to quickly reach into her bag to retrieve a hidden item.

With the object in her grasp, Yoshiko stepped away while Riko was distracted. She moved quickly, using the darkness of the bus to aid her as she made her way to the final pair on the bus, Dia and Ruby. Dia, being just like Riko, looked out the window in an attempt to keep herself awake, while Ruby had long let sleep consume her.

Yoshiko kept herself low, knowing that if she were to be caught now, she’d receive far too many questions with not enough answers. After a quick look around the bus, Yoshiko hid what she had taken from her bag behind her back.

Within her hand was a small red box wrapped in pink string with a bow to top it off. Despite nobody seeing her, Yoshiko was blushing upon thinking of what she was doing. Being nice wasn’t in the demon handbook but she knew her consequences if she were to not do this. Whispering out, Yoshiko attempted to grab the sister’s attention,

“Dia-san...psst, are you awake?”

Dia, being aggravated from lack of sleep, snapped her head towards the sound. She was met with a Yoshiko bouncing back and forth on her feet, as if wanting this interaction to end.

“Yes, Yoshiko-san. What do you need?”

Yoshiko took her chance to hurriedly pull the gift from her back, presenting it to the older girl as if it were for her.

“I got Ruby a gift. Well, a late birthday gift, but still a gift. I told you I would.”

Dia took a look at her presented hands as she grabbed a hold of the gift. A part of her wanted to tell the fallen angel what she truly thought.

It really took Yoshiko nearly seven months to finally pull together something so simple and small as a present for Ruby and she wasn’t even going to give it to her herself? Rather than causing a scene though, Dia let her annoyance radiate from her as she gave a slight nod towards Yoshiko, allowing her to leave and sneak her way back to an oblivious Riko. The older Kurosawa glanced upon a sleeping Ruby. She didn’t want Ruby to think she was giving her another gift nor disturb her slumber. Placing the gift on her lap gently, Dia continued her gaze out the bus window.

After Yoshiko returned to her seat, the silence still lingered between the members. Finally becoming bored with her phone, Mari looked over to see some of the girls were still awake. She broke the silence with her loud voice booming through the bus,

“Girls, why did we travel by bus? I could’ve just taken you all for a ride again like last time!”

Dia immediately turned her body towards the loud girl, having zero patience so late at night, as she responded to her in a cold tone,

“Mari-san, did you forget you nearly killed us last time? I don’t know what you were thinking driving like a madman but it was highly irresponsible! I still have nightmares!”

Mari just looked at Dia with the biggest smile, knowing it would only set the girl off more as she responded back with,

“But it was fun, right?”

Dia turned her head away from Mari, already knowing the conversation wouldn’t do anything but wake up the other girls if she were to start lecturing her on proper driving etiquette. The other members who were awake went back to their own little world, except Ruby. The red-haired girl had awoken from a yelling Dia but instead of complaining, she saw a small present on her lap.

She took hold of it, looking at it’s bright colors. However, being too tired to even open it, Ruby instead held a firm grip on the present as she let sleep take over her yet again.

Nothing could be heard from the Aqours members for the rest of the night as one by one they all fell victim to their exhausted bodies.

* * *

“Ruby, get up!”

Emerald eyes peeled open as a voice invaded Ruby’s ears. It was bright out and all that could be seen was the ceiling of a room and the open curtain of the window, letting in an array of sunshine.

With a loud groan, Ruby sat up to look around her messy room. She couldn’t recall the memory of ever getting into bed, actually she barely could remember anything past sitting down on the bus.

Taking a look at the clock by her bedside, Ruby noticed her alarm didn’t go off at all. Throwing the covers off of herself, the young girl began to get ready for her day in a hurry.

Dia sat in the living room as she drank her morning tea. Being the first one awake in the family household was just a habit she had picked up since she was young. As she brought her tea to her lips, all that could be heard were the heavy thumps of a certain troublesome little sister attempting to get ready on time.

“Ruby, could you watch your steps? You sound like an elephant running around the house.”

Ruby, who had just barely found her school bag, skidded to a stop in front of Dia with her school uniform skewed and her hair barely put together.

Sighing in disappointment, Dia got up to help her younger sister at least look somewhat presentable for the day. As the taller girl gracefully strode towards her, Ruby just looked down knowing Dia was going to scold her, it seemed she could never make her happy nowadays.

“Ruby, you’re getting quite careless.”

Dia began her lecture as she started fixing Ruby’s appearance. Knowing she couldn’t escape her older sister’s words, Ruby just looked behind Dia to focus on anything besides her,

“First you fall asleep on the bus after one of our usual performances, then you didn’t even get up when it was time to get off the bus. You know I had to carry you and our bags home? Of course with Kanan-san’s help, but we shouldn’t have needed any help in general. We’re the Kurosawa’s, we can’t rely on anyone but ourselves. You need to learn that. You’re going to be on your own one day and I can’t help you forever.”

As Dia’s lecture went on, Ruby continued to look all around the room besides at her sister. The moment she made eye contact she knew Dia would see right through her and realize she wasn’t paying attention to each word.

As her eyes wandered, Ruby noticed something on the table. A red present. It seemed familiar to the young girl but she couldn’t place her finger on it.

“Hey, onee-chan. What’s that?”

Ruby pointed her finger past the older girl as she was just on the ending of fixing her uniform. Dia turned around to see what Ruby was distracted by, only to see the small present. Dia’s mood dropped as she turned back to her younger sister,

“It’s your birthday present from Yoshiko-san.”

Ruby jumped up in enthusiasm as Dia went to retrieve it for the young girl,

“But before that, breakfast.”

Ruby slumped on her cushion and hurriedly scarfed down her rice bowl Dia had prepared,

“Ruby, you better slow down you might ge-”

“Done!”

Ruby thrusted her bowl in the air with excitement as she began wiping away the extra pieces of food still around her mouth. Dia sighed as she got up to give Ruby her gift. She grabbed hold of the box and presented it to a bouncing Ruby.

As soon as it was set down before her, Ruby began to tear into it, not caring about how much of a mess she made. After throwing the wrapping paper all around, she finally came into contact with her present: an axolotl keychain. It was just roughly smaller than her palm. Immediately admiring the small creation, Ruby bounced out of her seat as she shoved the present in her older sister’s face,

“Look, onee-chan! Look!”

Dia gracefully steered the object away from her, giving the object a strange look. Something was off about the gift.

“Ah, that’s nice Ruby, how kind of Yoshiko-san to give you a keychain.”

Dia tried her best to sound genuine but her sarcasm naturally flowed into her words. She took ahold of the small keychain to observe it more as Ruby kept stroking it in Dia’s hand as if it were real,

“Don’t you think it’s strange she gave you such a foreign animal as a keychain? It doesn’t remind me of you whatsoever. And besides, axolotls don’t really have any meaning behind them. Now then if it were, say, a frog? I could see that being a good gift since they are considered good luck as well as bring protection, don’t you think, Ruby?”

Of course Dia’s questioning just went in one ear and out the other for the younger sister. Letting out a sigh knowing nothing was getting through to the red-haired girl, Dia handed back the small animal. She couldn’t really judge what the gift was when at the end of the day it was a gift in general. Ruby began attaching her keychain to her set of keys when Dia suddenly remembered something important,

“Ruby, just so you are informed, I’m not going to be around when you return home from school today. Mother and Father want me to join them for something so this is going to be first priority.”

Ruby stopped playing with her keychain as soon as the words left Dia’s lips. She looked back at her sister in woe. She knew Dia was getting ready for college as well as beginning her first trades as the leader of the Kurosawa business, but it seemed unfair to overwork herself each day especially when she had just a few more shows with Aqours left,

“You’re gonna work? Right when we had a performance yesterday? Why not just tell them you’re tired so we can hang out, like old times?”

Ruby tried using her reasoning with Dia but she was not having it,

“Ruby, don’t complain about things you can not fix. Of course I want to rest but I just can’t, okay?”

Ruby sighed out in disappointment before giving up. Dia never reasoned with her, it was her way or the highway. Ruby continued to finish her tea in silence, awaiting for her time to go to school. While the seniors all got to leave early before the school year ended, Ruby, as well as the other underclassman, all had to attend their final weeks of school preparing for the next year.

Getting up, Dia began making her way towards the door as she called back to Ruby,

“Ruby, the bus is here. Make sure you don’t leave anything like last time, okay?”

Ruby got up, taking her bag along with her keys sporting her brand new keychain. She ran up to Dia, giving her a hug as they always did when they parted ways,

“I won’t, onee-chan. I’ll see you when I get home!”

Dia let out a sigh as she smiled at her younger sister, Dia may be getting older and less patient with childish things, but she was glad that no matter how much she changed, Ruby never would. She hugged her younger sister back, filling Ruby’s heart with joy as she stepped back before saying,

“Have a great day at school. Focus and study hard!”

Ruby began her jog to catch the bus as she shouted out behind her,

“I will, onee-chan! I love you!”

Dia simply waved back towards her as she watched her go onto the bus. As Ruby finally got on, she still waved towards her sister as long as she was in sight. After making their turn on the street corner, Dia headed back into her house but not before whispering out,

“Love you too, Ruby.”

* * *

Ruby dragged her feet to the rooftop of the school as she prepared herself for the one good thing about her day. The entire school day she just couldn’t focus, and neither Hanamaru nor Yoshiko were in class to help her as she was scolded by the teacher. During lunch she tried messaging them but she got no response, which wasn’t uncommon from Hanamaru since she still had a hard time with technology, but Yoshiko was always on her phone in and out of class. From things going from bad to worse after the morning time, Ruby was ready to unwind and hang out with her friends, or at least the ones that were actually at school.

As she stepped up each stair, she began to get worried. Usually by the time she got near the roof, at least Riko and You were there doing stretches and chatting yet she couldn’t hear anything.

Ruby made it to the last step before the rooftop only to realize, it was completely empty. Not a soul could be seen. She began to look around to see if maybe any of the girls had left their bags but there was nothing. It looked just as it did when they left for practice each day.

Ruby checked her phone, believing she had gotten to practice early. In reality though, she was about five minutes late. Everyone should have been there. Ruby decided to call Dia, in hopes she had missed a previously discussed meeting in a different area while she was asleep on the bus the day before. Scrolling through her contact list, Ruby dialed up her sister, awaiting her call,

“Pick up, onee-chan, please.”

Ruby pleaded with the phone as all that could be heard around was the howling of the wind passing through the trees, giving Ruby shivers down her spine. As the phone went to dial tone, Ruby tried calling the other members, but one by one everyone’s phone went to voicemail. Something seemed off about the entire situation to Ruby. First her sister didn’t answer her phone, then none of the other members. It was either the cruelest joke or something was truly wrong. Ruby picked up her bags and dressed back into her school uniform as quick as she could. She hadn’t missed the last bus to go home so she still had time to go see if Dia could explain what was going on.

* * *

As the bus neared her house, Ruby immediately jumped up in her seat to get ready to run off. On her way home, she kept trying to call each of the members once more but nobody was answering. It was worrying the young girl's heart out.

As the bus rolled to a stop, Ruby sprinted off, not before thanking the bus driver quickly. Reaching the front of her house at full speed, Ruby didn’t bother to slow down. There was something off about this entire situation, she could feel it. As soon as she barged in the house, Ruby called out,

“Onee-chan! Where are you?”

Getting nothing in response, the young girl began walking forward. Usually a house servant would greet her at the door but no one was home today.

Ruby began making her way towards Dia’s room, as she was usually there in her free time practicing her yamatogoto. Nothing ever stopped her sister from working. As she pulled the sliding door, Ruby called out for her sister yet again,

“Onee-chan? Are you home?”

Her ears were met with silence as she peeked in and saw nobody. It looked as if Dia hadn’t even been in the room all day. Ruby wandered the space a bit to see if there was any form of life but everything looked as it usually did. Not even Ruby’s bad luck of always getting caught sneaking around Dia’s room came into play as no one was near.

Nothing was adding up, it seemed that everyone had disappeared off the face of the Earth. As Ruby walked out of the empty room, she took a quick look back. She hoped something could give her a clue but alas everything was as perfect as Dia was herself. Ruby sighed as tears brimmed her eyes. She just wanted to see everyone again.

Ruby slid her own door open to her room, heading for her desk. She just couldn’t wrap her head around what was going on. Everyone wasn’t answering their phones and her sister was missing. It was as if everyone disappeared without a trace.

Making her way towards the closet, Ruby decided to grab another set of clothes.

If no one was going to answer her, she was going to go find out why herself.

As she went to open the door, a hooded black figure jumped out, startling the girl backwards. Tripping over her own feet, Ruby landed on her bottom before quickly looking up towards the person.

They stepped forward slowly, building their anticipation, as Ruby tried to scoot away. She only had so much space before her back hit the wall though.

Struck with fear, Ruby’s tears fell down her face as she lifted her hands up to make the person stop. The figure reached out and tossed her hands out of the way though as it did nothing to stop them.

Ruby tried to see the person better, so she could identify her attacker, but she soon saw a blunt object headed her way instead.

The young girl closed her eyes quickly before her world went dark.

With her motionless body hitting the floor, Ruby was left with no clue as to what was awaiting her future nor the pain of everything that would soon follow.


	2. Blind

Pain. It was all Ruby felt flowing through her body as she slowly woke up. The throbbing in her head pounded like a drum on the verge of collapsing.

Opening her eyes, Ruby viewed the dimly lit room before her. She had laid stiffly on the cold cemented ground with nothing under or on her for comfort. Propping herself up to take a look around, the young girl took note of the slight pain in her neck from laying oddly during her rest.

Within the snap of a second though her heart began racing. This wasn’t her room, in fact this place was completely foreign to her. As Ruby began to stand, her legs had become wobbly, attempting to cave in like a newborn deer. It was almost as if she hadn’t used them in quite a while.

As her eyes slowly started to adjust to the room, she looked around to see a lit candle catching her attention. It was the only thing giving the room a source of light as it sat on a desk in the corner. With each step walking towards the burning flame, she could make out the rest of her surroundings, which wasn’t anything but depressingly bland walls and just one door to exit.

As Ruby reared the desk, the only things that laid upon it were a candle and a box of matches by it. Ruby paced around in place for a bit, getting the feelings back in her legs, as she began thinking.

She was in a remote place, no one was around, and her last memory was being knocked out in her room.

Ruby’s eyes began to water as it had just set in, she was alone. Nobody was coming for her because not even she knew where she was. Ruby walked lifelessly towards the door as she put her hand onto it, getting a feel for the cold wood that laid below her fingertips. She turned around as she hugged herself in comfort, letting herself fall to the ground softly with her back dragging across the door. She let her tears fall as she sobbed about her situation into her drawn up knees.

Her moment of pain couldn’t last long though as the more she cried, the worse her head felt. She hadn’t eaten very well before going to practice and she had no idea how long she had been asleep for. Rather than continuing the ongoing pain, Ruby sat back up from her slouched position.

If she was going to get out of this, she had to think rationally.

As Ruby moved her head up towards the heavens for an idea, she noticed something barely catching her eye. It was the keychain she had gotten from Yoshiko. It was sitting in the middle of the room, facing the door, staring right at her.

Picking herself up to her knees, Ruby reached forward to grab the axolotl. Once in her hands, the young girl plopped back into her previous position, leaning against the door, now while eyeing the keychain. Dia did say there was something about the keychain, of course she said it was strange, but maybe that was a good thing. She was in a strange place afterall. With a quick jump to her feet, Ruby pocketed the keychain as she looked at the door behind her with determination.

Laying around all day wasn’t going to help her, she had to help herself. Or in a way, find someone else who could.

The young girl bawled her fists in a hurry as she began to pound on the solid door, she could only hope that someone would hear her. As the sound echoed loudly within the walls, Ruby began to yell out in hopes to create more noise,

“Help! Can anyone hear me? I’m over here!”

With her fists pounding the door, her hands began to ache. She hadn’t been hitting the door for very long but then again, Ruby wasn’t the one with the most endurance for those types of things. With a change of plans, Ruby grabbed the handle of the door to attempt to jiggle it open.

With a firm grip on the knob she began to pull, but she was met with no movement, only a rather small pathetic squeak. Feeling a ting in her heart, Ruby looked at the knob in exasperation. Resting her head on the door, Ruby whispered softly,

“Please, just let me out.”

Ruby’s tears fell more and more with each passing second. It seemed nothing was going to be easy for the red-haired girl.

A sudden thought popped into Ruby’s head however, the situation at hand was similar to ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Maybe not in the type of way she’d think where she was given bread and drinks that would change her size but she was lost, like Alice. A heroine for her younger self, Alice was able to get through Wonderland all on her own despite how misplaced she felt in such an unknown world. If she could manage to pull herself through such grueling tasks then Ruby could as well.

With that being said, the red-haired girl straightened up while wiping her tears cascading down her face. The only way out was through that door and like it or not, it was going to open for her.

Ruby grabbed hold of the door knob with both of her hands, getting her body ready. Luckily the door didn’t look like it was used to cage people in, creating a lower difficulty for the young girl to pop it open.

Putting her right foot at the door’s frame, Ruby pulled. With her leg pushing against the wall, she heard a small crack in the door. It was starting to move. As she kept at it, her muscles strained within her arms but she was so close, there was no giving up now.

With a final burst of strength, Ruby pulled with everything she had. The doorway burst open with small pieces of debris falling all around the young girl. Since she had put all of her strength and balance into that effort, Ruby ended up on the floor right in front of the door yet again but this time with a new goal: to get out of this place.

Small feet quickly jumbled to stand, only to see the hallway had no strong source of light. Rather than running in blind, Ruby headed back to the desk she woke up near earlier. She carefully grabbed a hold of the lit candle in order to not burn herself on the melting wax. As she was doing so, the red-haired began to wonder as to just who else had been using the candle for it to be lit when she had awoken. Ruby quickly shook her head at the thought though, she didn’t need the idea of someone possibly watching her in her head as she was about to walk into the dark abyss.

Ruby made her way towards the door with careful steps. She was sure to be on edge due to the fact that there was no known clue as to where her kidnapper was nor how much attention she had drawn with all the noise she was making while opening the door.

While the young girl inched closer towards the exit, the wooden chips that had previously broken off from the door softly cracked under her feet. Her free hand found its way to the frame, observing in the damage she had done. Taking a look at the door itself, Ruby spotted a broken latch hanging onto it. Whoever put her in there didn’t want her out anytime soon.

Tightening her grip on the candle in her hands, Ruby shakily moved it in front of herself to see what was ahead. It would be ideal to have a flashlight to be able see farther than a couple feet but then again, ideally Ruby would also rather be at home.

Each step was taken tentatively as the courage the small Kurosawa once had to get out quickly vanished into thin air. Like a frightened cat on edge, Ruby took in her surroundings of the hall she stepped into. Something about the walls seemed so familiar yet so foreign. Almost as if the building were a cheap knock-off brand of something she was once acquainted with.

With a look both ways, it seemed there was nowhere to go on the right side of her as it was a dead end. However, to the left there was a path that stretched further than she could see. The ringing in Ruby’s ears was overbearing with nothing to be heard in the dark hallway. Only the soft echo of her shoes on tile filled the eerie silence.

Making her way down the hall, a soft melody started up, filling Ruby’s ears with it’s angelic sound. Peaked in interest, Ruby’s small feet began to rush towards the noise. Someone was here and that meant there was hope she could get some answers for what was going on.

Keeping her steps light, the young girl got closer to the noise in question. The song wasn’t very graceful, not by a long shot. Every couple of seconds a wrong note could be heard, breaking the tune being formed.

Nearing the source, Ruby finally spotted something. On the left side of the hallway was a room. A dim light barely shone from under the door but it sounded as if there was life within those walls. Still being a bit frightened however, Ruby slowly walked towards the door and rested her hand on top of the silver knob.

The temptation to continue on past the room filled the young girl’s thoughts. The idea of her kidnapper waiting for her within the room was just about enough to keep her curiosity at bay.

Ruby took her hand off the door knob, taking a step backwards but before she could continue on, a sudden thought ran through her head. Dia was gone as well when she had returned home and whoever took her was able to get into her house. With that logic, there was a chance Dia could be within any of the rooms.

With the idea of seeing her older sister again, Ruby grabbed hold of the door knob, this one didn’t have a latch to be locked however. It was almost enough to be concerning since whoever was behind the door could technically roam free unlike her, but another broken note quickly snapped the thought out of her head. If someone was in there she had to know who.

Creaking the door slightly open, Ruby peeked her head in. Her eyes could barely make out anything as the room only contained a single light bulb hanging above a grand piano in the far right corner of the room. As she attempted to move in a bit closer to see more of the room, her hands lost their grip on the door, slowly allowing it to creak open.

Before she could go to stop her cover from being blown, Ruby saw something familiar, or rather someone. Long burgundy hair flowed down the girls shoulders with such grace as her hands found each key to the melody she attempted to let out. Relief washed over Ruby, finally someone she knew and could trust to help her get home was right in front of her, and she wasn’t even too far away from her own holding cell.

Along with relief though, confusion was also written all across the young girl’s face. Ruby couldn’t think of any logical reasons as to why anyone would be playing a piano alone in the dark when she, herself, was further down the hall trying to find anybody who could help.

Pushing the door open further but remaining still, Ruby brought the candle in front of her, letting her eyes adjust more as she took in what she could see of the room the young pianist was sitting in. Quickly analyzing her surroundings, the room was actually highly similar to the piano room in Uranohoshi. Green and purple walls gave the room life, however there weren’t any windows. The room seemed to be closed off from something. With a quick glance around the floor, Ruby noticed it was asif the pianist was stuck in a pattern. There was a harsh path, walked many times, where she would pace around the room. Finally, on the chalkboard to the piano’s right, written in a sloppy motion, there was only one thing for the current music piece, ‘A Blind Pianist's Lament’.

Deciding not to waste any time on the smaller details of such an out of character situation, Ruby slowly stepped into the room, making sure not to disturb what seemed to be the young girl’s routine. The idea to tap her friend’s shoulder ran through her mind but from where she currently stood, the pianist was gruellingly tense. With the burgundy-haired girl so entrapped in her music, Ruby decided to call out to her instead,

“Riko-chan? Is that you?”

The music stopped immediately as Ruby’s words left her mouth. With her shoulders relaxing, the girl let out a sigh of relief as she whispered aloud,

“Ruby-chan? Is it really you?”

Ruby’s heart was overfilled with joy when she heard Riko’s voice. Ruby began taking her steps closer to Riko as she started telling her everything she had been through while on the verge of tears,

“Riko-chan, I really can’t believe it’s you! I’ve been through so much a-and I don't know where I am and I’m lost and I-I can’t seem to find anyone and-”

But before Ruby dared to continue again, Riko slowly turned to her with a smile graced upon her lips but Ruby’s eyes weren’t drawn to that. Riko’s once champagne eyes were no longer there to ease her troubles. All that were left were the dark maroon muscles within her eye sockets, begging to be covered up. As Ruby ran her eyes across Riko’s face, she took in the dried blood streams making their way down the curves of her cheekbones. Despite the raw flesh that was exposed to the world, Riko was still overly joyous towards Ruby.

Ruby being paralyzed in shock, dropped her candle, quickly distinguishing the flame. Riko got up from the piano seat and as she made her way towards the younger girl, she brought her hands towards her face in a thinking motion. Despite the light being so dim now within the room, Ruby caught a glimpse at Riko’s fingers. Blood had long dried upon her porcelain skin. It looked almost similar to a crime scene with the red liquid even trailing along the white keys of the piano. Riko began to speak out,

“You know, Ruby-chan, I’ve always loved your eyes. You and Dia-san were blessed with emeralds, as it fits your names, while I was born with plain yellow eyes for a plain old girl. Now I don’t even have any. Seems unfair, don’t you think?”

Riko kept stepping forward, walking over her crumpled sheet music, trying to hear for the young girl as whimpers quietly escaped Ruby’s trembling lips,

“So to make this fair for the both of us, I think you should give me what I want and I’ll give you something you might want.”

Ruby could barely whisper out a response as fear had taken over her every action,

“W-what would I-I want?”

Riko finally locked her hearing onto the younger girl, snapping her head towards her direction before laughing out,

“I’ll make it fast.”

Lashing out, Riko jumped towards the younger girl with her hands outwards to grab hold of her. It was almost as if Riko knew exactly where Ruby was, despite her lack of vision, as her hands wrapped around the smaller girl’s body.

With Riko’s sudden force, she took both of them down to the ground with a thud. Feeling the touch of a deranged Riko, Ruby let out an ear-piercing scream as she was snapped back to reality. The Riko she knew was poised and mature, not a psychopath attempting to rip her eyes out.

With both of them struggling on the floor, Ruby was able to squirm enough to break Riko’s grip. The girl may have been bigger than her but Ruby’s small stature was enough to slip past.

With her one second of freedom, Ruby jumped to her unsteady feet while grabbing her previously dropped candle. She began running away from Riko without a second to hesitate. As Ruby got to the exit though, she turned to shut the door but it seemed Riko was one step ahead as she had already put her hand in the way. With Ruby trying to close the door on her, Riko cried out,

“Just let me see, Ruby! Don’t you want to help me out?”

With the adrenaline pumping through her veins, Ruby let go of the door. She only knew one place at the moment that was safe and it was right where she started.

Sprinting down the hall, Ruby threw her hands out in front of herself looking for the wall. With her candle out, it meant she was just like Riko, visionless.

As Ruby’s hands found what they were searching for, she began running her fingers more confidently against the wall’s bumpy surface without the fear of missing her stop. However, she could also hear Riko slowly walking after her, taunting her. With each laugh she boasted out,

“You know I can hear you, right? Years of playing piano trained my ears for anything.”

Rather than asking questions on anything Riko could give her, Ruby just kept running, talking to her would just give Riko more of an idea as to where she was and considering there wasn’t really anywhere else to go to escape, it was best if she stayed silent.

As Ruby’s fingers found the door frame to her room, she jumped inside, quickly shutting the door behind her. Regret immediately creeped up the young girl's spine over the broken latch though as she could hear the door slowly creeping open with nothing to shut it. Rather than trying another face-to-face interaction with Riko, but this one being in the dark, Ruby had a better idea. Crawl under the desk and hide. Thankfully Ruby had previously remembered where the desk was as she put her hands out in front of herself to find it.

With her fingers barely grasping the cold surface, Ruby dove down under the desk. Drawing her legs to herself, the red-haired girl quickly covered her mouth, barely letting out any pants of breath in hopes to lower her volume. She couldn’t hear Riko anymore but then again she wasn’t able to really hear anything with her heart beating within her ears.

_‘What happened to Riko? How is she even still alive after losing so much blood? Where is everyone else? Did everyone lose their eyes as well?’_

With each thought running across Ruby’s mind along with her heart never seeming to calm down, the young girl heard something move. As she looked towards the source, the creaks resonated from the door. It slowly opened, as if the wind was pushing it.

Into the one safe area Ruby knew, Riko stepped in. Throwing her hands over her face, Ruby held her breath, not trusting herself to be quiet on her own.

Riko slowly began to navigate the room, tapping on the walls to hear anything that might sound out of place. With an especially loud tap, Riko snapped her head towards the desk Ruby was hiding under. Without a second to spare, Riko charged at her direction as Ruby clamped her eyes shut, preparing for the worst with each loud step.

However, all that was heard was a loud thump. Ruby looked up, barely making out Riko’s figure. She had hit the desk the younger girl sat under with her hip. Her body was sprawled on the table as she began to feel around, running her hands over the matches Ruby had left. The red-haired girl was quick to find out that Riko only knew where things were in the room, not exactly what they were. Feeling around the desk more, Riko began to call out,

“Come on Ruby-chan, I know you’re here.”

As Riko straightened herself up, she began walking around again, calling out Ruby. The red-haired girl sat with her knees confined tightly to her chest, hands still covering her mouth, and tears filling her eyes threatening to fall. Getting caught was not the thing she wanted to do today. Riko finally stopped her hunt though as she let out a sigh,

“Alright I’m going, Ruby-chan. But don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

As she finished her statement off with a giggle, Riko began to run her fingers across the walls until she reached the door. Making her way out of the room, Ruby waited a moment to ensure Riko was really gone.

Counting down the time until at least a minute had passed, Ruby finally let out everything she was holding in. Her sobs came rushing out in hiccups as she took in the situation. It was all too much for her to handle. She couldn’t process who would do such a thing to Riko as she was such a nice girl to everyone.

Ruby got herself to her feet as she shakily stood in her room. It seemed her fragile legs couldn’t catch a break today as they attempted to cave in for the third time within the hour. She turned towards the desk, searching for the matches she had left, as she began to light the candle that had been distinguished in Riko’s room earlier. Though she followed the steps of lighting it, Ruby was left motionless afterwards, just staring at the flame as it flickered before her.

Glancing back at the door Riko had left without closing, Ruby’s eyes met with the taunting shadows that laid beyond her sight. Deep down the young girl knew the only way out was to face the pianist once more, or accept whatever fate she had staying within the room.

As her head overflowed with each possibility, as well as their pros and cons, Ruby made her decision. She couldn’t stay put, but rather she had to leave her chambers to find help. For Riko and most importantly, for herself.


	3. Hunger

The moment had finally arrived. Ruby’s second attempt at leaving the small chambers that once confined her, this time with a bit less courage.

With the candle lit again and within her grasp, Ruby found herself staring at the broken door frame before her. She knew there was something beyond Riko’s room but the problem at hand still remained, the pianist knew about Ruby’s whereabouts. Getting past her was going to be another issue added onto Ruby’s currently growing list of obstacles. However, everything had to be taken one step at a time.

Taking in a deep breath, Ruby took her first step out of the room once more. Anxiety washed over the young girl as the candle shakily attempted to fall out of her grasp. Ruby grabbed hold of it with her other hand.

It was now or never.

Ruby’s feet slowly carried her closer down the hall and just like where she was before, she heard Riko’s melody. This time however, Ruby was no longer curious what was behind the wooden door but rather petrified.

Anything was better than another encounter with the blinded beauty though, which was why she knew she had to keep going forward. To make less noise, Ruby hopped on the tips of her toes as she carefully walked past Riko’s door. With each crack of the melody, the young girl couldn’t help but flinch. No part of her wanted to stay in the situation she was in for a moment longer.

Eventually Ruby made it past the pianist’s chambers, all without causing another unwanted encounter. The young girl strode faster as she knew Riko would want to check on her at some point and now would not be an ideal time to come face to face with her again. Especially since there was no indication what was even past Riko. She could be stuck with her forever.

As Ruby scanned the walls, she searched for any type of help. Whether it be something written or even just a simple out of place object. But no, the walls stayed appearing like a sad makeshift Uranohoshi school.

As the halls kept going on, there was finally a break in the pattern, a door to the right. Ruby paused. Though the perfect idea of an actual sane person being on the other side of the door, not dying to rip her emeralds out, crossed her mind, the conflict of it being someone worse kept Ruby pondering her decisions.

With Ruby standing in contemplation before the door, she could hear noises within the other side. As she readied her stance into a fight or flight mode, most likely being flight back to her own room, the noises coming out sounded more familiar. Ruby neared the door quietly, in hopes to get a better idea of who could be behind the entrance. As she pressed her ear against the cold wood, the groans became louder. She closed her eyes in concentration, the voice sounded like someone she knew. It was just at the tip of her tongue. With a final burst of noise, all that could be heard from the walls were a muffled out,

“Food!”

It hit Ruby like a truck, it was Hanamaru crying beyond the walls. Ruby gently opened the door so as to not be noticed though. Despite it being Hanamaru, her childhood friend she could trust with all her heart, she had to be careful. There was no telling as to what was done to the young girl.

With nothing more than her dwindling courage dragging her forward, Ruby walked into the dark room. Hanamaru’s groans grew louder as Ruby’s hands searched the walls in hopes there was a light switch. With her hand landing on its destination, she flicked her fingers up, igniting the weak light bulb within the room. The young girl shriveled up in fear as her scene laid before her.

Hanamaru wasn’t free like Riko but rather chained to the wall by her arms and legs. Not even her feet could touch the ground as she was hanging in the air by her shackles. Ruby ran forward only to be stopped by the clear glass before her. The room her best friend was in was much larger than the one Ruby currently resided in.

Using one of her previously sore hands, while the other still held onto the candle, Ruby began pounding on the glass, hoping to break it. However, it was just her luck as it was rock solid. Despite the light within the room being slim to none, the young girl still needed to do what she could to help her best friend.

As she squinted her eyes to adjust to the lack of light, Ruby spotted something. There was a door farther down to the left of the glass barrier, barely seen in it’s dark corner. As Ruby ran towards and attempted to open it, it was no shock that it was locked as well, however this door was much sturdier than her own room she was in. Rather than wasting her dwindling strength on the door that wouldn’t budge, Ruby ran towards the center of the room, screaming out for Hanamaru,

“Hanamaru-chan! Can you hear me?”

Hanamaru wasn’t responding to anything Ruby was saying but rather kept looking around the room with dazed eyes. Before Ruby even knew it, more tears were creeping their way into her line of sight. It couldn’t be that there was no way to get in contact with her friend, as every problem had its solution. Prior to thinking of something new to try to contact her friend, the weak lights of the room flickered out.

In fear, the red-haired girl stumbled backwards, hitting the only table in her room. She turned around only to discover there were multiple things on the surface of the table. Ruby was so worried over Hanamaru that she had forgotten to even take a look at her surroundings.

The red-haired girl placed her candle onto the table as she started to observe what was before her. The table’s surface was scattered with dirty dishes accompanied by their silverware. As Ruby moved the dishes around to organize the area, there was a folded piece of paper placed between the mess. Her small hands grabbed the paper and opened it in hopes of something good happening. In her excitement however, the paper slightly ripped. That wasn’t what disappointed the young girl though but rather, the letter wasn’t even a letter. All that was written on the paper was a series of symbols, aligned as if they formed a message to someone in some type of secret language. Ruby didn’t quite understand it. Turning the paper over in hopes there was something more understandable, Ruby was met with nothing more on its surface.

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ÇsÍ¸Hç‰sý;lyTÀgòY|°_÷hÅ�Ôcû=G;Oã†!FC-´€R ÒÁ!ÔyéƒÈ—|øQ �ŽÖ(ZÀ2,5&&Áï?Z}  
SGV5IHRoZXJlLiAKSSB3YW5uYSBwbGF5IGEgZmV3IGdhbWVzIHdpdGggeW91IGFuZCBhdCB0aGUgZW5kIG9mIGVhY2ggZ2FtZSB5b3UgYXJlIHJld2FyZGVkIHdpdGggYSBwcml6ZS4KRWFjaCBnYW1lIGlzIGRpZmZlcmVudCwgc29tZSBhcmUgZWFzeSBhbmQgc29tZSBhcmUgc2xpZ2h0bHkgaGFyZGVyIGJ1dCBvZiBjb3Vyc2UgYWxsIGFyZSBiZWF0YWJsZS4KVGhhdCBwcml6ZSBpIHNwZWFrIG9mIGlzIGEgY29kZSwgdXNlIHRoaXMgY29kZSBhdCB0aGUgZW5kIG9mIGEgcGFzdGViaW4gbGluayAoaHR0cHM6Ly9wYXN0ZWJpbi5jb20vKSBhbmQgeW91IHdpbGwgdW5sb2NrIGEgYmFja3N0b3J5LgpFYWNoIGJhY2tzdG9yeSB0ZWxscyB5b3UgdGhlIGZhdGUgb2Ygb25lIG9mIHRoZSBBcW91cnMgbWVtYmVycy4KVGhlIG9uZSB5b3Ugd291bGQgd2luIHdpdGggdGhpcyBnYW1lIGlzIEhhbmFtYXJ1J3MgYmFja3N0b3J5LgpJdCdzIHlvdXIgY2hvaWNlLCBlaXRoZXIgeW91IHBhcnRha2UgaW4gbXkgZ2FtZXMgdG8gZ2FpbiBrbm93bGVkZ2Ugb2Ygd2hhdCBoYXBwZW5lZCB0byBlYWNoIEFxb3VycyBtZW1iZXIgb3IgeW91IGVuZCB1cCBsaWtlIFJ1Ynkgd2hvIG1pZ2h0IG5ldmVyIGZpbmQgb3V0IHdoYXQgaGFwcGVuZWQgdG8gaGVyIGJlbG92ZWQgZnJpZW5kcy4KCk5vdyBnbyBhbmQgZmluZCB0aGUgY29kZTogYUhSMGNITTZMeTlwTG1sdFozVnlMbU52YlM4MWVFeFZVa1ZETG5CdVp3PT0=  
×B+ìƒ½�e0aP¡¬ê½;yó+¨TØôÖµñï±²�ËÖQ÷qØâ¼¶]«!U˜€¢x†·Š7¤)Ë›Fçþ¿4<Èü¸´ŸJ�=¿dÿcì™,Žg"6ñ*ù2Ó&d"�J@p/ÜÏ¢ˆRKlÙÏ´êÌŽ§®Õ·À<7süÍÓ8}†äS+’Hî˜D,<©–æU"Ï&Ü`±Ý€ Ð±1

Tossing the unhelpful paper to the side, Ruby looked around more. There was a single microphone on the desk as well but before Ruby could touch it, a pungent smell invaded her nostrils. Following the odor, the young girl found herself looking at a trash can next to the table. It had a mixture of food rotting together with sauces mixed in as well. Ruby took note of that as it seemed whoever was with Hanamaru hadn’t been back in a long time. Rather than continuing to look at the vile mixture of food, Ruby focused on Hanamaru instead.

She couldn’t see much but Hanamaru’s small figure confined to the wall of a light blue room. In front of Hanamaru was a table as well but hers was empty, collecting dust. Considering the light source was practically nonexistent, Ruby didn’t take long to review her best friend’s room. Now that everything was somewhat observed, it was time for contact. The red-haired girl began pressing the buttons on the mic in front of her.

With some trial and error, a loud noise burst through the speakers all around. Hanamaru’s head shot up, looking around, eyes wide in fear. Ruby tried the button again as she began speaking,

“H-Hanamaru-chan? Can you hear me?”

Hanamaru’s face lit up with joy as she heard her best friend. Calling back to her, she let out,

“Ruby-chan? Is that you, zura?”

Ruby choked on her words as sobs of happiness attempted to escape her lips. Finally, someone actually normal was within her presence. She started to take in Hanamaru’s appearance more, firstly noticing how skinny she was. The shackles looked as if they would slip off of her fragile wrists any second. Her bones protruded from all over her body, with her skin sagging in lack of muscles to keep it up. Ruby’s eyes landed on Hanamaru’s stomach. Her shirt was ripped and on the tips of torn clothing, dried blood stained the once white school shirt. However with it being so dark, there wasn’t very much detail she could get out. Not understanding how this could have happened to her best friend, Ruby sat in shock of a completely different person in front of her. It appeared as if she hadn’t eaten in months.

Hanamaru began to panic, as she couldn’t hear Ruby respond. Before she could say anything however, Ruby called back,

“Hanamaru-chan, I can’t really see you. Is there any light in there?”

Hanamaru looked up towards the ceiling as she yelled back in her faltering voice,

“I think there’s a light switch on your side, zura. Try checking near the door.”

With her guidance, Ruby found herself by the door again. Hanamaru’s words were correct as a bit farther down from her destination, the switch rested. Flicking it on, the young girl could finally see her best friend, however it wasn’t the state she could’ve ever imagined. The smile she had for her friend soon fell as she saw what form Hanamaru was truly in.

It seemed the blood on the tips of her shirt wasn’t dried but rather was continuously streaming down her stomach, soaking into her skirt. With the light finally shining in her room after so long, Hanamaru attempted to move in hopes of shielding her eyes but it just revealed more to Ruby. Her stomach was slashed open, allowing the raw meat of her insides to be on full display along with pieces of what seemed to be intestine making its way out, just hanging from the poor girl.

Seeing this all was the last straw for Ruby as she ran over to the rotted food and began to dry heave into the trash bin. Having one hand on the desk to keep her weak self up, however Ruby’s hands accidentally clicked the button for the microphone, letting her best friend hear what she did to her.

In sudden embarrassment, Hanamaru let her head fall down towards the ground, not even having enough strength to let it be graceful. She attempted to draw her knees in, though they were confined to the chain, to hide herself as she said out,

“I’m so sorry.”

However, Ruby was not going to let this moment go. She found her best friend, maybe not in the best position, but she was right in front of her. She could help her. With Hanamaru’s look of true sorrow, Ruby found the strength to continue on,

“I’m sorry! I-I just wasn’t expecting that.”

Hanamaru began to look around as Ruby kept speaking,

“Where are you, Ruby-chan?”

Ruby looked at Hanamaru in confusion. Her eyes seemed fine, unlike Riko’s, yet even with the added light she couldn’t see anything past her own room. Ruby began waving her hands around but wasn’t even greeted by a glance from Hanamaru.

“Can’t you see me?”

Hanamaru kept looking around the room, voice growing in frustration as she told Ruby back,

“No I can’t see you, zura. Please just help me!”

Ruby already knew breaking the glass wouldn’t work. Rather than trying again and just causing herself more pain, she just proceeded with more questions for her best friend.

“What happened to you? How did you get here?”

The small girl looked down at the ground, letting herself remember everything that led up to these events. With her speech mentally gathered, she called back to an awaiting Ruby,

“I don’t remember very much. Maybe a snack could help my memory, zura?”

With a little hopeful smile upon her lips, Ruby called back to her,

“Please, Hanamaru-chan? I want to help you.”

Letting her shoulders down in defeat, she answered back,

“Okay okay. I really don’t remember a lot though, zura. I just remember walking home, dying to get in bed but I was stopped-”

Before she could finish though, Hanamaru groaned loudly in sudden pain. Ruby quickly took her hand off the mic as she gagged slightly. With the toss and turns Hanamaru made in pain, she would accidently show her meaty insides moving about. As Hanamaru whimpered more, she let out to Ruby in a pain filled voice,

“Please, Ruby-chan. I’m so hungry, zura. Please help me.”

Ruby scanned the glass between them but couldn’t see any type of solution to get something to her best friend. There wasn’t any food for her, neither a way in. Ruby already knew what that meant but rather than dwelling on it, she instead called back to Hanamaru in a cracked voice,

“Hanamaru-chan, do you at least know where the others are? I saw Riko-chan but she didn’t… well, that wasn’t Riko-chan back there.”

Hanamaru’s frustration grew as Ruby wasn’t giving her what she wanted. She told Ruby a final time,

“I don’t know, Ruby-chan. I don’t remember anything past getting taken… except I do remember one thing, zura.”

Ruby jumped up in hope. A clue was all she needed at the moment,

“I remember being reborn, zura.”

Ruby’s face dropped. The clue wasn’t helpful at all, she was just more confused than ever.

“Do you know who is behind this all? You had to have seen them, right?”

Ruby questioned, but Hanamaru just stayed silent, staring at the ground. Only barely raising her head to let out,

“No more questions, just food. Please? Just let me out, zura.”

Ruby couldn’t let her best friend continue on without trying something once more. Picking up her candle, she guided it against the walls. There was the door she had tried to open before but nothing more. With her best friend on the line however, Ruby set her candle down. She grabbed hold of the handle and like in her own room, put her foot against the frame as she began to pull.

This door wouldn’t even show any type of weakness however as it stood as proud as a brick. Ruby couldn’t continue on as she ached all over. Her head began to pound as her thoughts of what she had to do started taking over her train of thought. With her tears building up each passing second, the young girl’s strength was fading away fast. Ruby was at a standstill.

She picked up the candle, walking back to the center of the room once more. Ruby placed her hand on top of the clear glass where Hanamaru rested. Letting her own tears fall, she realized that she couldn’t help her friend in her current state. She could only keep going and hope to find someone, much stronger and fearless, who would come back for her. Ruby went to the mic to tell her best friend for a final time in whispered out tears,

“I’m so sorry, Hanamaru-chan.”

As Ruby turned and began walking out of the door, she could hear behind her the sounds of chains moving about with Hanamaru screaming out to her,

“Please Ruby-chan, don’t leave me alone! I-I’m so hungry, zura!”

Ruby made it out of the door, quietly shutting it. Despite the wall between them, Hanamaru’s muffled cries could still be heard, leaking into the young girl’s ears. Each scream was like a pin to Ruby’s heart. Not wanting to bear another second listening to it all, Ruby ran off. She couldn’t stop, not until that sound was out of her head.

It didn’t take long before Ruby’s legs gave in, causing her to fall to her knees. Not caring about the pain, Ruby placed the candle aside as she began to sob into her hands.

She couldn’t remember a time when she wasn’t crying, it seemed the pain just kept going.

Ruby threw her hands onto the ground, pounding away. Anything to help her forget about the agony in her heart over her best friend. As the young girl looked towards the ceiling, all she could do was question everything she knew.

Though the thoughts seemed to be a series of never ending questions, it helped ease her in a sense rather than thinking about what exactly caused the questions to arise.

Ruby got up from her feet, slightly wobbling from doing so many things within a short time. Despite her willpower continuously dying, she still held on. A tiny voice in her head kept her going, pushing the idea of something within the labyrinth to help her in some type of way. Whether it was a clue or an actual sane person, anything passed through her mind to get her feet walking again.

With each step that carried the young girl forward, Ruby couldn’t help but look at the floor in despair. This place had done nothing good for her since she had woken up. She had only met two of her friends but Ruby was not in any type of way ready to see who else could be further beyond the walls.

As the young girl continued on, eventually the hall broke its continuous path, turning right. It wasn’t until she made her way further down, Ruby could see another room. With already feeling drained emotionally from the last room, she didn’t even hesitate as she turned the handle, letting herself into the open area.

It was a fully lit cream-colored room. It contained a table with a chair pulled out, as if waiting for someone to sit in it. Ruby glanced around to see if possibly there was someone waiting for her.

With no one in her presence, she stepped forward to help her make out what was within her sight. A glass full of water as well as two melon breads sat in the center of the table. A single note laid propped next to her tiny feast. Ruby peeked over her shoulder, in case this was some type of cruel joke, as she picked up the paper. Across the clean white sheet read,

_‘If you are reading this, then you have done well._

  
_It’s far from over however, for there is more to dwell._

  
_The water is pure, so come near._

  
_The snacks however, one you should steer clear.’_

Ruby turned the paper around to see if maybe there were strange writings on it like the previous note but this one was written for her to read. As Ruby looked over the water, she was highly hesitant. Nothing in her wanted to put her faith into anyone who would do such disgusting acts towards her friends. However, if it was her only freebie within this awful game, the idea of taking the water didn’t seem all that bad.

Reaching out, Ruby grabbed hold of the cup of water, observing it from all sides. Condensation ran down the glass as it shined in the light. Even going as far as sniffing it, Ruby saw that the drink seemed safe. Not wasting a second more, the young girl downed the drink entirely, making up for her lost tears that had been flowing all day.

After sipping every last drop, Ruby looked at the empty cup in her hands. If only she found a way to Hanamaru, she would have been enjoying the water with her.

Growing in frustration, next thing Ruby knew the glass had slipped from her hands, shattering across the wall. The guilt was beginning to eat her alive. Her best friend was in a separate room, in much more dire need of food than she was, yet here she was being a greedy animal. Ruby walked over to sit in the pulled out chair, now looking at the two breads in front of her,

“Hanamaru-chan loves bread.”

Ruby barely whispered out to herself as she grabbed ahold of the two sweets. She thought back to the note, as it warned her to not eat one of the breads. Though neither of them look tampered with, Ruby wasn’t sure which to test her luck with.

Looking between her hands, Ruby could only wish Hanamaru was there. Her golden-eyed friend always had an acute sense for bread. She could always tell if something was wrong in even the smallest crust lining.

Closing her eyes, Ruby let fate decide as she brought the left bread into her mouth. It was fluffy from the inside out but Ruby’s tears left a hint of salt with each bite. Her mind just couldn’t leave Hanamaru.

After finishing her meal, Ruby stood up and stored the other piece of bread into her pocket. She grabbed a hold of her candle as she walked towards the exiting door, feeling disgusted with herself for enjoying such a treat.

Not wanting to think about anything other than getting help, Ruby continued her journey. With each foot in front of the other, she found herself out into a new darkened hall. Before she could turn back however, the lit room she was once in slammed shut, locking on its own. Ruby didn’t have the strength to react to the sudden mysterious force though.

It seemed nothing would be fair to her in this world and she was going to have to get used to it.


	4. Stealth

Hearing only the echoing of her own shoes against the floor, Ruby steadily made her way down the darkened hall. From the things she had seen so far, it was a miracle she was still going strong rather than curling into a ball on the floor and giving up. There was something deep down inside of her that wanted to go home to her ordinary life again. Just to wake up being scolded by her sister, go through boring classes each day, meeting all of her friends for practice, then going home to her peaceful room. However, life doesn’t always go so easily.

As Ruby’s mind wandered to the good parts of her life, she noticed something. The hallway finally had a change in course rather than a straight path. Ruby was curious of what was coming, each new way could change her fate for better or for worse.

Taking a left, the red-haired girl continuously walked down the new path as she finally was met with an intersection. Blocking her way though was a tall girl with a long ponytail facing away from her at yet another intersection just ahead. Above her was a flickering light bulb going in and out. Despite the taller girl being so far away, Ruby could already see it was Kanan. No other person in the world had soft blue hair that went to their back in such grace as well as a nice physique to match their strong stature.

However, already having seen what had happened to Riko and Hanamaru, Ruby quietly backed up without saying a word, in hopes to not alert the young diver. Sure, Ruby was able to escape Riko but that was because they weren’t very different in physical abilities. Kanan is a different story. If she wanted her, she was going to have her.

As Ruby watched the older girl, she noticed that Kanan didn’t seem entirely there. She was in a slouched position, as if she were waiting for something to give her a reason to move.

Not a moment later though, Ruby saw as Kanan started to walk her way towards the hallway on her left in a lifeless motion. Not taking the chance at following her, Ruby decided to keep watching Kanan as her own feet carried her in the opposite direction of her own right hallway. As they split paths, the young girl couldn’t help but feel her anxiety rise, just awaiting a sudden snap in the older girl’s attitude.

Walking further away, Ruby looked around the hall she had just entered. There was a door both in front of her at the end of the corridor, as well as a close one to her right. While walking further, she began to run her fingers along the walls to feel the chipped paint, taking note of just how dirty it all was.

_‘Whoever ran the building obviously never bothered to clean it.’_

Ruby thought as she wiped the dust on her shirt. Finally coming across the door closest to her, she grabbed the handle to open it, realizing it was locked after a quick tug. Having it be no surprise, the young girl attempted to pull harder on it for it to budge. However, she was stopped in her tracks, Ruby realized something. If she continued this onslaught of noise for a door that possibly went nowhere, she would be caught.

Silently letting the door go, Ruby closed her eyes in concentration to hear if Kanan possibly heard her struggle. Hearing nothing though, Ruby let out a breath of relief. Having a bit less care knowing that the older girl probably couldn’t hear her so far away, Ruby happily walked further down the hall.

Being so negligent in her actions soon became her downfall though. The young girl stumbled upon her feet, falling on the floor while letting out a little squeak as if she were a dog toy. What frightened the young girl was not the fact that she had fallen but that she let go of her candle, letting the metal hit the floor, echoing throughout the silent halls.

Holding her breath for a moment, Ruby closed her eyes, holding back the emotions she had felt. Not only did her body hurt from taking the full force of the fall but her heart was in just as much pain. She just blew her cover when she had the upper hand of the situation. She let out a small prayer in hopes that she hadn’t been heard just yet. However, her prayers were denied as not even a moment later, the silent halls were filled with heavy stomps coming towards her direction.

Not leaving a second to spare, Ruby projected herself forward in an attempt to run and get up while also grabbing her candle at the same time. As she was about to take a sprint, she realized that her shoes hitting the floor would only bring more attention towards her direction. Taking note of that, Ruby began to speed walk, with massive strides in hopes to get further away in silence.

Finally nearing the door more down the hall, Ruby grabbed a hold of the door knob. With luck finally in her favor, Ruby pushed open the door but was faced with another issue. The room was pitch black with not a single place to hide. With the candle having fallen on the ground, its flame was fragile as it couldn’t even make out much of her own surroundings. The sound of Kanan’s footsteps coming closer was enough to push Ruby however as she stepped in the door, closing it quietly. It was either staying out there to face Kanan or go in the dark room where she possibly wouldn’t be noticed.

Within the room, Ruby set her candle down silently as she put her back against the door. If the young diver were to start opening doors, Ruby could hold her position to fool her into thinking it was another locked door.

Then, as if Kanan could sense the red-haired girl, Ruby felt a force on the door as it started to be pushed open. Ruby locked her stance, putting her entire force against the cold surface. With Kanan being so strong though, the door started to slightly move.

As it did, Ruby could feel her plan falling apart and her eyes tearing up. Before she could mentally think of a new one though, the young diver seemed to have given up on the door as everything stopped.

Keeping her head close to the door to hold it back while also hearing out for the other girl, Ruby could just make out grunting noises along with random thumps of objects falling getting farther into the distance.

_‘Maybe Kanan-chan has bad eyesight in the dark.’_

Ruby took note as it wasn’t entirely difficult to see in the halls, but with each thump it sounded like Kanan was having a tough time. Going back to her own situation of the dark room, the young girl picked up her candle and began to fan her flame to help it grow stronger to ignite the room. With the light's strength growing, Ruby held her candle out only to fully see the room she believed was previously bare.

Ruby stepped back in shock, it wasn’t just any random room, it was You’s room. Or at least a spitting image of it. Ruby walked around it, remembering every detail of the room she had spent so much time in. You had taught her all new types of sewing tricks as they stayed into the late hours working for the new Aqours costumes.

Ruby’s fingers danced along the walls as she already knew where the light switch was. The bright lights blinded her as it was much more powerful than the ones outside. With her hands in front of her now teary eyes, the young girl squinted as something caught her attention. The room may have been the spitting image of her close friend, however something new was in sight. Ruby approached You’s desk as right next to her sewing machine there was a blue book. It had a blank cover but from the tattered papers, it looked as if it had been flipped through many times.

Ruby opened the book, only shutting it immediatly after reading the first line of,

_‘Hey Diary… Journal… Pal? Actually what should I call you?,’_

She couldn’t invade You’s space like this. You was a great friend and she respected her as well as looked up to her as another older, slightly mischievous, sister.

Ruby’s fingers stayed on the book however. She was curious. There could be a hint as to what happened, or maybe You had seen someone suspicious. She did always notice the smaller things in others.

Ruby shook her head, there was no way she was invading You’s personal space. Even if this place didn’t seem real, it didn’t matter.

Ruby began to walk out of the room. Her shoes clicked against the floor and even though she passed by all of You’s other things, such as her assortment of books or even her ship-in-a-bottle replica, her mind was still on the diary. It was enchanting her.

Before Ruby could even get to the door, she immediately turned back for the book, she had to know what was going on.

Nearing the young sailor’s desk, Ruby grabbed a hold of the blue book in fear. Whatever she read in there obviously wasn’t for anyone, thus this would be a changing point in how she saw You.

What if You was much more different then how she acted?

With Ruby’s curiosity finally taking the best of her, she opened the book finding multiple entries of You’s day. The red-haired girl flipped the pages in hopes to possibly find something tampered with that would indicate a clue for her, but with each page it just seemed like more mindless days passing. Despite skimming through things, only certain words would catch her eye such as “Yearn” or “Admire” but those chapters seemed especially off limits.

Not as impressed with the book as she thought she would be, Ruby went ahead and flipped to the last page.

_‘The end will tell me if anything happened to You-chan.’_

Ruby thought to herself as she found the final entry. It was just a simple passage written in the young sailor’s sloppy handwriting,

_‘Hey Pal,_

_Long time no speak, huh… or write? Anyways, just thought I’d give an update on life and stuff. I usually only ever wrote in here about things that were troubling me or going wrong but as of lately, things have been great! Today, Chika-chan and I were supposed to be doing costume design stuff for our future shows but… we kind of got distracted. By distracted I mean we just blew it off and played video games together while eating junk food. I tried the pocky game with her but she didn’t take the bait, she just ate the entire box but that was hilarious to see too._

_It seems we can’t ever do anything at Chika-chan’s house, it’s like she has the place hardwired to be a fun zone. Either way, doing stuff like that just makes me really feel like things are going right in life. Each day I’m happier and happier that she confessed to me at the aquarium. If she didn’t do it, I don’t think I would have ever told her how I felt. I can play a big game in front of my friends but in reality, I’m not that strong. Ugh, depressing stuff. Let’s not get into all that._

_Anyways, we still haven’t gotten to telling our friends but... I don’t think we need to. I like it being just us. Everyone just thinks we’re childhood friends and this is just what we do when we’re being ourselves but... well, I’ll tell you something, journal. I think I’m in love with her. I’m not a Baka-You, I know I kind of have to be to date her, but she’s just so... wow. Her smile, her laugh, her everything makes me feel on cloud nine. I already loved her as a friend but sometimes I wonder how long I’ve truly loved her because I honestly can’t think of a time when she didn’t make me feel this way. Gosh if I could only have one wish in the world, I’d wish for us to be together forever._

_But okay I should get to bed now. We have a concert tomorrow and I need to go if I want to wake up early enough to catch Chika-chan. She said she wanted to see me so hopefully she will give me a good luck kiss beforehand! Haha okay that’s being too optimistic, it’ll probably be another hug but I don’t mind. She can take our relationship as slow as she wants, I’d wait forever for her._

_Okay, sleep time! See ya!’_

Ruby read the page in shock. She was not aware of You and Chika’s relationship status. However the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. They had been very touchy recently, not once could the young girl remember when they weren’t close to one another. Ruby smiled to herself though.

_‘I’m glad they could work things out and be happy. I hope they’re safe from all of this, they deserve it.’_

Ruby made the mental prayer as she closed the diary. Sure she had invaded You’s privacy but You seemed happy and in love so she’ll keep that secret just for her. Having her curiosity at rest, Ruby decided to get out of the room. She had seen all that she could and while it was disappointing that there were no hints at anything else, at least she knew You was happy wherever she was.

The young girl finally walked back towards the door, silently opening it. Despite that one happy moment, Ruby still knew she had to get back into survival mode if she wanted to get out of here. If she were correct then Kanan walked further past the door, leading the only possible solution to go opposite and go back to the intersection where she began so she wouldn’t be caught.

Before leaving the room however, Ruby looked back at it and smiled. You was the brightest girl she knew, at least she had someone equally amazing to match her now. With a light prance in her step, the young girl gently turned off the lights before shutting the door behind her.

As Ruby’s small feet carried her back to her starting position, the only thing that ran through her head was taking mental notes of Kanan’s placement. There was no sign that she wanted her as she could just be looking for others like how Ruby was, but being on edge never hurt anyone, especially in a hell like this.

With herself in the same position as she started, Ruby looked at the now empty hall. It had once contained the taller girl but looking at it now, she couldn’t tell if it looked more menacing or less. Since she already had the idea once to continue forward, Ruby considered this a sign that she should take her original route. It seemed like fate to have her come back to that exact spot.

Walking forwards towards the intersection Kanan once stood, Ruby looked up at the flickering light bulb. The light strained its power to stay alive but for what reason? It wasn’t as if anything here was worth seeing with pure eyes. Taking her eyes off the light, Ruby decided to follow the way Kanan had previously gone as she continued to her left.

There were many doors around the location but none had wanted to open for the young girl. Ruby’s hands constantly ran across the dirty walls as every so often a door would appear and as usual, with a little tug, it would be locked from the outside world.

_‘What’s the point of each door if they just go nowhere?’_

Ruby questioned as she was constantly met with disappointment from the forbidden paths. By now Ruby had almost absent mindedly been attempting to open doors before finally one on her left had opened for her. Stepping back in surprise, the young girl looked around the hallways to be sure she hadn’t been heard before slowly opening the creaking door.

Stepping into the darkened room, Ruby noticed something oddly familiar about the room. The light source was weak but the purple color scheme of the room couldn’t help but stand out. Taking in her scenery, she had the name at the tip of her tongue. It contained cream colored walls, a purple checkered floor, a curtain with a large eye in the center being uplifted by an even larger “Y”, a simple brown working desk, as well as a soft bed with little plushies attempting to be scary.

As Ruby stepped further into the room, she walked over to the curtains. Her curiosity was getting the best of her. It was as if the large eye was drawing her in to see what lied past it. With the push of the fabric though, all that could be seen was a black space of emptiness as if she were shut off from the outside world.

Ruby let go of the curtains and instead turned her head towards the desk. The small desk didn’t contain very much as it seemed whoever was previously there had stripped its contents. Setting her candle onto the table, Ruby organized the desk to get a better understanding of what was all there.

Picking up the messy scene, Ruby looked at her now somewhat organized area. It only contained two books having the titles ‘Aqours’ and ‘Grammatically Correct’, however all of the mess had come from scattered blank papers. What intrigued the young girl however was the figurines on the desk. There were only two. Ruby, herself, and a Mari one, however the older girl’s arms were missing. Of course they were school idols so they would get little items like these but only fans ever bought them.

It raised the question of just who had trapped her and her friends. Certainly a fan couldn’t know so much about each of them and their routines, but things did have a way of surprising Ruby recently.

With each item tempting her to observe further, she knew only one thing truly would help her in her journey, the key that was left on the table within the mess. Picking up the abnormally large metal key, Ruby observed the new found object. It seemed important due to its size, though all the doors she had come across were fairly small.

Still thinking of its possible use, the young girl decided to pocket the large key. Feeling around her pocket though, Ruby noticed her keychain she had brought along. Sure it wasn’t considered good luck like Dia had once told her before but it was the only thing that hadn’t changed since getting here and she was going to hold onto that with her life.

Finally, Ruby went to the bed. There was nothing except for the small stuffed toys but she needed to rest for even just a moment. Sitting on the soft purple pillows, the young girl grabbed hold of the heart plushie that sat on the bed, as it looked the least menacing.

As she looked at the pillow, Ruby couldn’t help but think of her friends as well as her sister. Perhaps everything around her was just an awful nightmare and with enough patience it would all be over. Ruby squeezed the soft heart plushie into her chest as it was the only good thing to happen to her so far in her journey.

_‘I hope you’re alright, onee-chan. I don’t wanna be alone anymore…’_

Ruby thought to herself, hugging the plushie tighter as she tried to hold back her tears.  
As the young girl began to get up to leave, she couldn’t help but have the selfish desire to take it with her. However, as if her sister were in her head, the thought was immediately pushed away. Dia would most likely tell her she can’t carry so much, especially if it’s not useful and plus it would be childish. With that in her head, Ruby dropped the pillow back onto the bed, realizing this could be a part of growing up in a way.

As Ruby made her way back to the desk to pick up the candle, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. The room, it finally all came back to her. It was Yoshiko’s. Ruby spun around the room to see if the girl was somehow hiding within it but she was met with silence. While Ruby had never gone into the room before, she had remembered the large eye curtain while watching one of the fallen angel’s livestreams once.

Ruby couldn’t help but wonder as to what the reason was for having exact replicas of each girl’s rooms.

First You’s room and now Yoshiko’s, would she stumble upon her own next? Or was that why certain doors were locked?

Ruby’s mind raced as her stomach turned, she didn’t want to live here forever.

The idea of staying for eternity sent a shiver down her spine as Ruby hurriedly grabbed the candle, making her way out without looking back at the once peaceful room.

As if already prepared, Ruby placed her ear onto the door to ensure she heard no noise in the hall before slowly opening it. Being cautious was going to be her only way out of this place and she was going to do just that, especially after her previous screw up. Ruby peeked her head out of the door after hearing nothing, turning both ways to guarantee no one was just standing in the halls. As she walked out, Ruby decided to continue her previous journey further down the hall.

The halls twisted and turned more and before Ruby knew it, she was exhausted. She took so many lefts and rights, at least in her mind, while being met with disappointing doors along the way that wouldn’t open, even with the unusual key. The halls were also disgusting considering they were clouded in dust along with random boxes tossed around the floors, as if no one bothered to tend the halls. With Ruby’s frustration growing, the young girl had long forgotten about what exactly laid in the dark until she was rudely reminded very quickly.

Breaking the silence of the halls, boxes could be heard in the far distance being stumbled over. Ruby snapped her head towards the source, silently pleading it was just her imagination.

With another thump being heard, the young girl took no chances. In a panic, Ruby speed walked down the hall she was in, taking a right turn. The hall she turned into was a dead end but rather than trying to walk further away, Ruby hurried to the first door on her left. To her advantage, it was open.

Creaking the door open as quickly and quietly as possible, Ruby jumped into the dark room as soon as it was wide enough to fit her body in, slowly shutting the door behind her. Turning her back towards the door, Ruby closed her eyes shut as all she could hear in the room were silent droplets hitting the floor in a randomly assorted pattern. With only her small source of light from her candle, the young girl’s hand went to the wall, in hopes to find a slight switch in the dark. With her fingers searching across the damp walls, she found her target and with a quick flip the room was lighted.

Upon first glance, Ruby was immediately thrown back into the memories of the room Hanamaru was chained in. The room was divided into two with just a clear glass between the rooms, however there wasn’t anything food related in the room Ruby resided in, just a table with yet another note on it.

As Ruby’s nostalgia came back, she noticed that the room didn’t have a pungent odor of rotten food but rather mildew. Glancing closer at the walls, she noticed the room being damp, as if it were freshly washed out. Walking closer to the separate room, Ruby observed its condition.

There was no door that would let her into the second room, all Ruby could do was imagine how anyone could escape. Passing by the table within the room, the young girl walked towards the one-way glass, taking note of the other room’s design. There were pipes coming down from the roof, still leaking around the empty room. Stopping at the tip of the glass, the small girl looked into the room as it looked exactly like Hanamaru’s, with faded blue walls to match its depressing scenery, of course with the exception of the chains to hold her best friend. Squinting her eyes further, the young girl was becoming curious.

_‘How did Kanan-chan escape? There wasn’t a door in the glass like in Hanamaru-chan’s room.’_

Ruby wondered looking all around the room for a clue. Kanan wasn’t magic so there had to be an explanation. It quickly became obvious though that there was a door within her side, however it was so dark it just blended with the walls.

Not wanting to see anymore, Ruby turned around and with each couple steps, her feet would land in yet another puddle.

Walking back to the table, Ruby went straight for the only folded piece of paper lying on the desk. The young girl could only hope it was similar to the one that rested in the room with refreshments. With her small hands uncovering the truth of the paper, it was no surprise when all that became of the unfolded paper were the strange symbols similar to the other paper.

¤41ÊÝxÃ·ß~k©zü˜è€â6T%·ñAcù!]•ÚÓ2}~ªî½NíËnªF£Q¾EáÒìÎ¼xñ¢BU'/Á!çÕ«WFàá;Ù¬Š«k¤v9BÉ9HíkOC5v"ß¶À÷£4õúõëR¡2¹¹9>•áÚB³³TÔæ•QÞ=k!+³bssÓiXâ±À'''p«Ã'¡² SGV5IHRoZXJlLCB3ZWxjb21lIGJhY2suCldvdWxkIHlvdSBsaWtlIHRvIHBsYXkgYW5vdGhlciBnYW1lPwpUaGlzIHRpbWUgSSBoYXZlIHlvdSB0byBkaXZlIGRlZXAgdG8gZmluZCBhIHRyZWFzdXJlLgpGaW5kIGl0IGFuZCBiZSByZXdhcmRlZCB3aXRoIGFub3RoZXIgY29kZS4KCkVuam95OiBhSFIwY0hNNkx5OWthWFpsWkdWbGNDNWpjbVF1WTI4dg== G³$eÎUb€ÊÝm/©ü·þ£ÄöúLG¿&ÖyMíŒ&ÞãUþZ©óå+>éæ'uZMüÈííí<µC¥}Þ«Í}÷úSÒî[u:çªLæêWÚ•¯ûÝ§²f‚Ê°|&¨±®ÏÕ#Þó~ŸÕæççyi6v&Ïšœ%)Í=h'ò›k4ŠéTû£~À©Ç¬õß¡5@.q9h

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Ruby pocketed the note as she began walking out of the room. Her frustration was growing, along with new tears in her eyes as nothing was solving itself. She was so tired of all these mysteries.

First, she entered a strange place and was met with awful depictions of her best friends and now the only clues she was ever given were written for her to never solve.

With Ruby sniffling while wiping her tears, she began stepping out into the hallway. As she walked out, she paused for a moment. She hadn’t even checked to see if Kanan was around before opening the door. Moving just the slightest within her neck, Ruby checked down the halls quickly.

Fortunately, there weren't any signs of anyone. Letting out a sigh of relief, the young girl finally made her way down to the last door that was in the hall. Her heart was filled with hope that it would be another freebie room where she could get something to help her to recharge her at the least.

As Ruby walked towards the last door, she felt an itching coming along as if she needed to get something out. Before she could react however, she sneezed. With her hands immediately going towards her mouth, she accidentally dropped the candle.

The halls were so silent as all that could be heard were the soft echoes of the sneeze. Ruby was about to take a sprint towards the last door but was paused as more sneezes began. Stuck in her tracks while out in the open for all to see, all that could be heard behind her were heavy footsteps as well as boxes being thrown about. After her third and final sneeze, Ruby pounced towards the last door. An awful time to be sneezing as the door was at a dead end, meaning she was putting all of her eggs in a basket for this one chance. With her hands stretched towards the door knob, she felt as if she could hear Kanan’s footsteps directly behind her.

Finally grasping the knob and pulling at it, she was met with resistance as it was locked. Thinking straight for her key, Ruby’s hands dove into her pockets within her skirt. As she grasped the object in need, she was ready to thrust it into the keyhole but with her mind going into full panic mode, she dropped it.

Ruby quickly fell to the floor to grab the key. Her tears began to cloud her vision while her heart felt as if she were running a marathon. With her shaking hands grabbing it, she began to bounce on her feet while trying to hurriedly unlock the door.

With everything finally into its position however, it wouldn’t budge. Ruby hurriedly tried to reposition the key but without avail, it simply would not work. Seemed the key was meant for another door.

With a change of plans, Ruby quickly pocketed the key once more as she turned to make her way back towards the wet room she knew was open. With a spin on her heels, the younger girl was stopped as just down the hall, the taller girl’s form made its appearance.

With not a second to spare, Kanan began to charge at her as if she were going to run straight through her. Not having anywhere else to go, Ruby began to scream out,

“Wait! Kanan-chan, stop!”

Hands now placed in front of her own body in protection to stop the older girl, Ruby was stuck in her position watching her fate unfold before her very eyes. Kanan sprinted towards her, kicking the fallen candle out of the way as if she wasn’t paying any attention to it.

Despite the awful light source of the hall, Ruby could finally see the older girl’s face more clearly with each step taken towards her.

It wasn’t the once caring and hug enthusiast girl she cared for dearly but rather a monster. Her mature face was now stitched in every way possible. There was no room for her to see, smell, or even speak. Her most important senses were taken from her.

It was as if everything solved itself in that moment though. The boxes being tossed around wasn’t Kanan being careless but rather not being able to see them.

Ruby’s mouth went dry as she realized this was it. Riko wanted her eyes but without Kanan having anything, that could only mean she’d want everything.

Only able to shake her head in a silent plea, the small girl closed her eyes as she fell down to her knees. Covering her head, Ruby let her final tears drop.

The last noises Ruby heard were of Kanan’s heavy footsteps directly in front of her before she felt a brute force take the light from her.


	5. Shiny

“One, two, three, four!”

Ruby hurriedly danced along to the rhythm of the song playing in the background as her muscles screamed for a break. You shouted out the numbers as she watched Chika and Ruby dance in front of her, observing their forms closely. With their song ‘Kaigandoori de Matteru yo’ being one of the most upbeat ones, You decided they should build their stamina now so they could keep up with the crowd later when they really needed to. Which brought them to now, tirelessly dancing on the rooftop until they got it just right.

As the sequence came to an end, You quickly stepped in before either of the girls could even think of relaxing,

“Hey, great work today! You guys are getting a lot better with timing as well as your stamina!”

Chika quickly lit up with You’s compliment, jumping over to hug her best friend. You caught ahold of the bouncing mikan before they could collide,

“Well we’re only getting better because we have you, You-chan.”

You blushed with Chika’s words as she became highly embarrassed. Only her best friend could turn her into a blubbering mess. Ruby walked over to grab a water bottle as she was already used to their interactions, it was just background noise to her at this point.

As Ruby bent down to grab her water bottle, she felt a strange overwhelming sense as if someone was watching her. Getting up to look around, she only saw You hugging Chika but it looked like she was telling her something as she spoke close to her ear.

Before Ruby could walk over to ask what was happening, You pulled back. She gently held her hand onto Chika’s shoulder before walking towards Ruby, the girls not breaking their eye contact for a while.

Ruby had seen the girls very close before but it was quite strange to see it now. Usually it was as simple as sitting next to one another or holding hands, not whispering secrets and longing touches. The red-haired girl stifled her giggle as they were being over dramatic to her. It wasn’t as if You were leaving Chika forever. Before Ruby knew it though, You was already in front of her with a look of confusion on her face as if she had asked her something already.

“I’m sorry, did you say something, You-chan?”

You giggled as she noticed Ruby was spacing out. She patted the girl’s head as she got closer, whispering out,

“Hey, can we talk for a second? Just us?”

Ruby looked at the older girl, quickly glancing at Chika as well. The orange-haired girl was already on the floor relaxing for their short break. As her eyes went back to You, Ruby just shook her head. With the sign of clarification, You turned as she began her walk towards the stairs. Leading both of them, You guided Ruby so they could both be hidden from sight.

With Ruby following You, they came to a stop near the end of the stairs. The grey-haired girl turned around as her smile dropped from her face. Ruby’s mood quickly changed as she realized this was not going to be a casual talk about fashion, like always. You stepped closer to Ruby, grabbing the front of her pink shirt with both her hands as her voice dropped lower, whispering out for the both of them,

“I know what you’ve been doing and you shouldn’t be looking through other people’s things.”

Ruby’s heart began to pound. She didn’t know exactly what was happening as You wasn’t acting like herself. Trying to back away from the stronger girl’s grasp, Ruby grabbed onto You’s hands to pull them away from her shirt. However, with You being the trained athlete she is, it was no use as she was getting nowhere. Ruby began to feel herself tearing up.

“I didn’t mean to, I swear, You-chan! I-I’m so sorry.”

You’s stare became more intense as she brought Ruby closer,

“You shouldn’t say things you don’t mean. You looked through my stuff when you knew it had nothing to do with what you needed. Being here is making you greedy for more than what you can handle. The least you could do is just admit it.”

You’s words began to fade as Ruby’s sight started to give out, something was happening but she just didn’t know what. With everything around her getting brighter and brighter, You’s words faded entirely but the young girl was still able to read the last words upon her lips,

“Get the hell out of here.”

* * *

_“SHINY!”_

Ruby shot up, gasping for air as her ears were filled with a booming voice from all around her. With her hands clutching her chest, the young girl looked at where she was in her frightened state. She laid on a cold cemented floor and as she looked around her eye level, meeting with nothing but dark shadows. However, one thing shone above it all. In front of Ruby stood Mari with a large smile upon her face but just like everything else in this world, that wasn’t the Mari she knew.

Looking Mari up and down, the first thing to take Ruby’s sight were Mari’s legs. They appeared to be fine, however her arms were a different story as they we’re no longer there. All that remained were stubs only reaching between her shoulder and elbows. Neither of her missing arms had a closing point as they both remained open. The older girl’s blood dripped down her torn apart arms, covering the stone cold whiteness of her protruding bones. As Ruby’s eyes went up, the last thing that had changed on the older girl was her smile. It still was as bright as the sun, however as if sliced like the fresh meat it was, Mari’s cheeks were slit straight open. It was as if someone had run a knife through both sides of her face, keeping the smile on her face permanent. It seemed that Ruby had been staring too long at the girl as within seconds later, a loud booming interrupted her ears,

“Is this thing on? Kanan, can she hear me?”

Ruby quickly covered her ears, shrinking into herself to protect her hearing from the loud noise. Ruby peeked back up at the girl and as she did, she realized Mari’s mouth didn’t move when she asked her question. The young girl was too frightened of her situation however to ask anything, all that could be heard was a loud grunt from somewhere in the shadows. Mari seemed pleased with the noise as she continued to speak,

“ _Good morning, Ruby!_ Now that you’ve finally woken up, let’s get things started!”

Ruby stared at the huge stage that Mari stood on. Everything she had seen so far around the halls had been pure garbage, however the stage was well lit as if she were a performer and this was her show. It even had extra designs on the sides of the stage with an assortment of sparkles and an occasional dolphin to give it more variety. Ruby’s curiosity grew of just how the older girl found all of the supplies to do these things.

_‘Was Mari-chan favored in some way or was this all her own doing?’_

Ruby’s thoughts were cut short as Mari began speaking again.

“Alrighty Ruby, are you ready? I have a game I want to play! If you’re lucky, it’ll be your last.”

Mari giggled at the end as she poked her tongue out to the younger girl. The loud speakers rang through the room as all Ruby could do was cover her ears to reduce the ringing that would soon set in.

“The game is simple. We’re going to play a little game of tag, you just have to survive five minutes. If you win, we’ll let you go!”

Ruby jumped in happiness from Mari’s words. Five minutes couldn’t be too bad, plus Mari had no hands. She couldn’t even officially tag anyone, if anything it would just be traumatizing.

“ _But wait!_ Here’s the catch. I won’t be playing, Kanan will take my spot!”

As Mari spoke, Kanan walked from the shadows of the stage, with a grunt of confirmation. Realizing the situation she was in, Ruby’s heart dropped. Kanan already caught her one time, a second time would be a piece of cake and god knows what she could do now. As if her thoughts were heard, Mari confirmed her suspicions,

“You were spared one time, Ruby, but if my Kanan gets you now, it’s lights out for good this time. I’m sure you don’t want that now since Yohane really would like to see you.”

Mari giggled as she saw Ruby’s face go through a series of emotions ranging from scared to confused. Before Ruby could question Mari’s comment about Yoshiko or even more about the rules, she was out of time. With not a moment to spare, the game had begun. Mari shouted out,

_“Lights!”_

All around Ruby, her scene was lit for her. She wasn’t on a plain concrete floor as she had thought previously, but rather at the beginning of a maze. The walls were around 6 feet tall, not letting the young girl see above it but short enough for Mari to see the entirety of it atop of the stage she stood upon. Ruby looked back at Mari as she finally understood what was happening. With the same wide smile plastered across her face, Mari giggled,

_“3!”_

Ruby jumped to her feet, knowing this was her head start.

_“2!”_

The clicks of shoes were all that could be heard as Ruby ran into the uncertainty.

_“1! Go get her!!”_

With the last words to leave Mari’s mouth, all Ruby could hear was a loud thump as Kanan had jumped off the stage, into the maze with her. Tears streamed down the girl’s face as her anxiety shot through the roof. Biting her lip to keep herself from whimpering, Ruby attempted to remember which turns she was taking. It didn’t take long until Ruby could hear Mari’s occasional,

“Take a left, Kanan! No not your left, my left. Oh also watch out for that. And you tripped over it.”

Ruby giggled occasionally as she realized this was much easier than she had assumed. Kanan not having eyes was the worst form of torture but in Ruby’s case, it was just the upper hand she needed to win the game. She had begun to stroll around the maze, setting down boxes in the path that were stacked aside as to get in Kanan’s way. Ruby realized the young diver just couldn’t react faster than Mari’s orders.

It wasn’t until she was met with Kanan at the end of her hall that the young girl realized she was being a bit too carefree. While Ruby thought Mari was guiding Kanan behind her, the blonde was in fact leading them to meet face to face.

Ruby paused for a moment as she looked at the older girl. There were more paths as well as boxes between them but the problem was, there was no sign as to which halls were dead ends.

“Run forward, Kanan! She’s right in front of you!”

Kanan took off like a bullet, easily beating out any running time Ruby ever had. However, things were in Ruby’s favor for once and she was not about to lose this good luck streak.

Despite her heart feeling ready to burst out of her chest, the young girl ran towards Kanan as just ahead of her there were more boxes on the floor. With both of them nearing each other, Ruby went and kicked the boxes over with all her strength, sending them flying as Mari attempted to warn Kanan,

“Kanan! Jump!”

Kanan jumped but not fast enough as the tips of her shoes were caught. She fell forward, hitting her skull onto the ground. Hearing the loud thump, Ruby kept running past Kanan while quickly shouting out,

“I’m sorry, Kanan-chan.”

As she ran down a random path, Ruby found herself getting more into the maze than she could remember. Before she could start slowing down to memorize the turns, a timer went off. Ruby stopped in her tracks, looking up towards Mari. The older girl’s smile never broke as she said aloud,

“Ah Ruby, you made it past five minutes!”

Ruby’s smile burst onto her face as she excitedly jumped up and down. Five minutes wasn't too bad afterall.

“But you aren’t done.”

Ruby’s excitement became lost as she looked towards Mari in confusion. Despite being as quiet as she usually was, something in her felt this didn’t sit right. With her anger building, the red-haired girl shouted out,

“How? We played for five minutes and I won!”

Mari giggled as she heard the high pitched screams of the smaller girl.

“Ah just like your sister, always playing by the book. Well this is my game, so what I say goes.”

Ruby’s anger faded as she was reminded of Dia. Her sister would be so upset with her if she saw her yelling at her elders like this. No matter the situation, Ruby was always taught to respect everyone, even if it didn’t feel right.

Ruby backed down as she looked at her shoes. She could feel her tears forming again as the older girl had touched a soft part in her heart but she couldn’t let anyone see that. Mari continued on,

“We have now entered the _Shiny Bonus Round!!_ ”

Suddenly loud sirens could be heard in the background as well as lights flashing all around the dimly lit maze. Ruby closed her eyes as she put her hands over her ears once more in hopes to quiet down the older girl’s loudness.

As Ruby looked back up to the limbless girl, she was no longer on her stage, however her voice could still be heard,

“The bonus round won’t be much different from the regular one but there will be one more obstacle...”

Ruby looked around as Mari’s voice tapered out, leaving her on the edge of her seat.

“Me.”

Before Ruby could react, she was pushed to the floor, immediately feeling a large weight on her back. As she began squirming, all she could see was blonde hair blocking her sight accompanied with fits of giggles.

“Oh Kanan! We’re over here!”

Ruby’s heart dropped as she could hear loud thumping with grunts coming towards her. In a state of panic, Ruby started to cry out loud as she attempted to throw Mari off of her. Mari however, was just laughing maniacally even as Ruby finally was able to slip out from under her.

Taking off like a bullet, the young girl began sprinting through the maze. All around the halls, Mari could be heard speaking out to Ruby,

“I wouldn’t take that turn, Ruby. You might end this game sooner than you’d like.”

With her ears thumping to the sound of her heart, the young girl didn’t even notice what was right in front of her. With her clumsiness causing her fall, Ruby slammed onto the floor.

Rubbing her head after the collision, Ruby looked back to see what caused her pain. It was shocking to see it being Mari, in a laid out position accompanied with a smirk on her face.

“Aw look at you, falling for little ole’ me?”

Ruby screamed back at Mari in fear as she got up to run again. By now she had lost the number of turns she was taking, what was up or down. It was an entire overload of emotions surging through her, desperate to outlast this so-called ‘bonus round’.

It didn’t take long before Ruby found herself tripping again though. Looking back once more, Ruby saw it was Mari in the same pose as before,

“You really should stop going in circles. You’re making this too easy.”

Before Ruby could get up and run this time however, Mari had sprung on her, using her legs to pin Ruby harshly against the floor before she screamed out,

“Kanan! Come over and let’s finish this game!”

With loud footsteps being heard around Ruby, all the girl could do was scream as she kept trying to get out from Mari’s legs, thrashing in every way possible to offset the blonde's balance on top of her. Mari couldn’t help but laugh at the girl as she reminded her of a squeaky toy being pushed to its limits.

Ruby quickly realized the older girl was incredibly strong in her legs, most likely due to it being the set of limbs she could use. Ruby felt as if her heart was going to burst through her chest as she heard Kanan getting closer.

With the diver turning the corner, Mari began to laugh more as Ruby just began to scream while shielding her eyes. She didn’t have a single escape route left.

Finally, Kanan began charging towards the two. With every stomp, Ruby silently prayed for this to end quickly as she didn’t want to suffer.

With Kanan being only a step away from her, a loud buzzer echoed in the room.

“Ah phooey! Looks like time’s up, Kanan.”

Mari said as her smile never broke.

Ruby looked from between her shaking fingers, still partially covering her face. Kanan’s hands were only an inch from her, reaching out to grab her.

In frustration, Kanan closed her hands into fists as she retracted them back to her sides. Ruby was harshly breathing as Mari finally got off of her.

“You were really close if it counts.”

Kanan crossed her arms with Mari’s words, turning away in a grunt from the two as her competitiveness was still quite evident even in the strange version of her. Mari went towards her, rubbing on her as if she were a cat.

“Oh come on, don’t be such a sore loser.”

Ruby still laid on the floor as nothing in her had calmed down. Sure she had won the game but this had to be some cruel joke, none of the other girls were ever this fair with her.

Mari turned to the scared girl and as she flinched, Mari began to speak.

“Well, Ruby, looks like you won both games. Shall we?”

Mari turned around as she began to walk out of the maze. Kanan followed closely behind Mari, as she acted as a guide. Ruby quickly jumped to her feet in following.

Occasionally Ruby would notice that Kanan would reach out to touch Mari, as if checking if she were still in front of her. In a normal situation Ruby wouldn’t pay any mind to it but after the entire You-diary situation, she couldn’t help but look into things much more with her friends.

With Mari finally leading them out of the maze, she kept walking to guide them to the center of the stage.

With a spin on her heels as they reached their destination, Mari looked at Ruby. Knowing Mari was finally up close, and in good lighting, Ruby couldn’t bear to look her in the eyes as she kept her head down. Everything about her was no longer the same and if she were to never escape, this was not the final picture she needed in her head of Mari.

“Do you not like what you see, Ruby?”

Mari questioned her as she noticed the young girl’s actions. Ruby began to tear up as the entire situation was finally coming into light. None of the other girls had really talked with Ruby without wanting something from her and she couldn’t tell if she wanted it that way or not.

“I just want to leave, Mari-chan.”

Ruby said in tears with her voice breaking. Mari stayed quiet for a moment before calling out to Kanan.

“Kanan, open the curtains.”

Ruby looked up as she didn’t even notice Kanan had walked away from them. With Kanan on the sidelines, she pulled a large yellow lever and as she did so, the curtains behind Mari began to open for her. Ruby smiled as she saw that just behind the curtains was a door. Taking her slow steps towards the door, Mari and Kanan stepped to the side to watch her leave.

“Kanan, would you do the honors?”

Kanan grunted in frustration and walked to stand right next to Mari. Ruby looked at Kanan as she was curious what Mari was talking about but after a quick nudge from Mari again, Kanan began to clap for her.

“Thank you, Kanan! Congratulations on winning, Ruby. I am a girl of her word and you can go freely now. Kanan nor I will hunt you down anymore. However, you should probably know something before you go.”

Ruby looked at Mari in anticipation of what kind of advice she would get.

“I may have let you go but you should know, the other girls won’t be so easy on you.”

Finishing off her sentence with a giggle, Kanan looked especially upset. It made Ruby wonder, would Kanan have spared her the first time if Mari hadn’t wanted to play the game?

Looking away from the two, Ruby walked towards the door. The faster she could escape, the better. With her hand on the knob, Ruby heard the final words from Mari.

“Good luck, Ruby! You’re going to need it. Dia wasn’t very happy about you getting caught, you know.”

Ruby snapped her head back but all that could be heard we’re giggles from Mari as the stage was cleared out. Turning back to the door, Ruby whispered to herself,

“Onee-chan… please be okay.”

Turning the knob, Ruby let herself into the new room. With her first step in, it soon became apparent that it wasn’t a room but a hallway to lead her to a new area. The hallway wasn’t long but it was completely dark with only the light from under the door ahead to guide her.

Finally getting to the new door, Ruby slowly opened it, peeking her head into the new room.

The room wasn’t as bright as she presumed. As she struggled to see, her vision slowly adjusted to allow her to notice the smaller things within the room. The first being the large poster of all the Aqours members along with missing posters of each of the girls surrounding it. The poster however was tampered with as each of the girls had something scratched out on them with red ink along their bodies. Almost all of them at least. Ruby was left spotless as well as Yoshiko, with just little demon horns added onto the fallen angel. Upon seeing the two being left alone, Ruby was in a state of shock. Sure it wouldn’t take long to scratch up a poster, however with the missing posters surrounding the girls, it made her wonder, just how long had they been gone? Maybe they had been in this place for longer than she had presumed if there was enough time to go by for all the girls to be reported missing.

Ruby looked around more to find a table sitting in front of the poster with three items: a radio, a CD case, as well as a flashlight. Grabbing the flashlight first, Ruby turned it on to get a better look at the items in front of her.

Taking a look at the CD case, it turned out it was their single ‘Hajimari Road’. Ruby was highly confused as to how anyone could have a copy. Only the first years had the original single, since it was them who sang it together. No one should even know about it as it wasn’t set to be released until months down the road.

Grabbing a hold of the CD case, it felt as if the disk were still in it. Not thinking about it twice, Ruby went ahead and popped the disk into the radio, giving their single a listen. It started as it normally did with the upbeat music beginning but within time the audio began to fall apart with all of the girls voices slowing down, deepening the pitch. Ruby couldn’t help but start to feel sick from listening to the song. It was just the noises but it felt as if something were in her with each beat of the rhythm.

With her hand reaching towards the radio to turn it off, Ruby’s vision slowly started fading into darkness. The young girl began to panic as she could still feel herself standing well enough to not faint.

Reaching her hands to wipe the darkness from her eyes, a form began to flash within her eyes of Yoshiko, staring at the young girl with a smile etched onto her face yet eyes filled with anger. In a panic, Ruby tried closing her eyes, rubbing at them harshly, however Yoshiko only stood closer with each second.

A sudden loud noise banging within the room interrupted Ruby’s panicked state, causing her to scream in terror. With everything happening at once, Ruby fell down to her knees, holding onto her head. It felt as if she were going insane. First her vision and now noises, it was already beyond her handling capabilities.

Ruby only heard the eerie quietness of the room as she steadied her own breathing. She couldn’t see Yoshiko anymore but that didn’t mean her guard was entirely down yet. Peeking an eye open, Ruby looked around the ground to ensure no one was in the room with her. The noise sounded as if someone had entered but she was the only body within the space.

Standing up to look around more, Ruby noticed something new, a tape recorder. The young girl was sure it hadn’t been there before. Taking another look around, Ruby spun on her heels to get an entire view of the room but she was still the only one there.

With a hesitant hand, Ruby reached forward to play the recording device. Even though nothing good had come from the first one, it was as if the small device was calling her name, begging to be heard.

_“Hey there...my little demon, Ruby. Surprised to hear my beautiful voice talking to you? I’m sure you are since the other’s haven’t been playing too nicely with you. You wanna go home, get out of here, right? Don’t worry, you will get out of here eventually, one way or another._

_Anyway, good job surviving this far. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think someone like you, an incompetent child as your sister once put it, would’ve ever made it out of the room you first woke up in but you showed me I was wrong. I know you’ve been through a lot, seeing all these monstrosities I call Hellfires that I have created of our friends, especially of your best friend Hanamaru. Such a shame you couldn’t help her, could you? Leaving your precious friend behind to starve, you should’ve tried harder. It’s too late for you now but you could’ve saved her if you just looked hard enough for the key in that exact room you were in. You are such a bad friend, let me tell you._

_But enough talk, let’s see if you can survive all of my unstable world. Maybe if you do then I’d gladly have a talk with you face to face. Good luck, little demon._

_Oh but before i go, here’s a tip: Not all Hellfires are bad, you should try to reason with them. You might have fun.”_

Ruby was speechless, it was Yoshiko alright but she sounded unhinged, similar to the other “Hellfires” as she put it. As Ruby heard her words play over and over again in her head, she just couldn’t believe Yoshiko was behind all of it. Sure she had her little Fallen Angel shtick going on with little demons and curses and all, but this went way too far. Her friends were unrecognizable monstrosities all while Yoshiko had the audacity to laugh as if this were a game.

Feeling overwhelmed with the situation, Ruby put her hand on her chest to calm herself as she felt her heart was beating far too fast. Her mind raced as she thought of everything that would possibly bring Yoshiko to do such things, or even how she did them in the first place. Her thoughts were cut short however as she heard her stomach grumble. She couldn’t remember how long ago her last meal was.

Taking a look around the room for some snacks, Ruby was met with disappointment as the checkpoint was not like the last one. Even searching around in her own pockets, Ruby looked for anything that could help fill her needs.

As her hand stuck in her pocket though, Ruby quickly realized two things. First thing: the large key as well as the snack she once had no longer resided in her pocket. Second: despite those items being missing, her small axolotl keychain remained. Ruby couldn’t help but smile just a tiny bit as maybe it was luckier than she had previously believed.

Accepting her unfortunate luck, Ruby went ahead to take the flashlight, replacing her old lost candle, with her on her journey. As Ruby went to grab the light, she noticed a small paper openly sitting next to it. Ruby glanced at the strange text as it was just as similar to the previous papers.

ù!]•ÚÓ2}~—ªî½NíËn�ªF£Q¾EáÒìÎ¼xñ¢BU�´/Á!çÕ«WFàá;Ù¬Š«k¤v9BÉ9HíkOC5v"ß¶À÷£4õúm/©ü·þ£ÄöúLG¿&ÖyMíŒ&ÞãUþZ©óå+>éæ'uZM�üÈííí<µC¥}Þ«Í}÷ú�SÒî[u:çªLæêWÚ  
RnJvbSBvbmUgZ2FtZSB0byBhbm90aGVyLCBpc24ndCB0aGlzIG5pY2U/CkJ1dCBkbyBub3Qgd29ycnksIHRoaXMgZ2FtZSBpcyBtdWNoIG1vcmUgc2FmZXIgdGhhbiB0aGUgb25lIFJ1YnkganVzdCBoYWQgdG8gZ28gdGhyb3VnaC4KT3IgbWF5YmUuLi5JIGFtIGx5aW5nPwpZb3Ugd2FubmEgdGFrZSB0aGUgcmlzayBvZiBwbGF5aW5nIG15IGdhbWU/CgphSFIwY0hNNkx5OWtjbWwyWlM1bmIyOW5iR1V1WTI5dEwyWnBiR1V2WkM4eFdXdzBZVGhEUm5aRFJqWlZRelZHV1RkcU5uQjRWVGRGVEZNeFVHWjBNVGd2ZG1sbGR6OTFjM0E5YzJoaGNtbHVadz09  
ó~�ŸÕæççyi6v&Ï�šœ%)Í=h’�ò›k4ŠéT�û£~À©Ç¬õß¡5@.q9hkOC5v"ß¶À÷£4õúõëR¡2—¹¹9>•áÚB³³TÔæ•QÞŒ&ÞãUþZ©óå+>éæ%·ñAcù!]•ÚÓ2}~—ªî½NíËn�ªF£Q¾EáÒìÎ¼xñ¢BU�´/Á

Taking a hold of the paper, Ruby went ahead towards the door. With no food and just a flashlight in her hands as well as a new note in her pocket, the young girl took her time leaving the room.

As Ruby left, she could hear a quiet giggle behind her sounding all too similar to Yoshiko’s signature snicker. Turning quickly back to the room to see if it were true, the door shut in Ruby’s face. Ruby could already hear the door locking automatically before she could even reach for the knob.

Knowing the giant metal door wouldn’t ever budge for her, Ruby began to look forward back to her previous position as she began her next journey. With her mind racing with everything that she was told and everything she still questioned, only one thing kept replaying in her head,

“Yoshiko-chan…”


	6. CYaRon

The clicks of shoes could be heard within the empty hall Ruby walked down. Despite the deafening silence around her, the red-haired girl’s thoughts were preoccupied with other things.

All that ran through her head was the new information she was given of Yoshiko being the mastermind behind all that was around her. The worst part was that Yoshiko had to literally tell Ruby she did it, she didn’t even realize it herself. Yes, the clues were all there, Yoshiko being one of the few to not be seen, Mari calling Yoshiko “Yohane”, Yoshiko having only the devil horns on the Aqours group photo, literally Yoshiko clouding her vision, but it just didn’t make sense.

_‘Why did she do it? How long has it been? And what did she mean by “Not all Hellfires are bad”?’_

Those three were the main questions that flooded the red-haired girl’s thoughts. It didn’t feel as if more than a day had passed since she woke up in this strange area, yet there were already missing posters of all of them. She as well didn’t even have a clear definition of what the so-called “Hellfires” were. Everything was confusing.

Despite Ruby thinking so diligently about everything, something caught her eye. To the girl’s left was an old fashioned TV, mounted to the wall. Ruby didn’t bother stopping as it didn’t seem important, most likely another added junk to the halls. It wasn’t until Ruby took a couple steps past it where the TV flickered on, stopping her in her tracks.

The young girl slowly turned around towards the screen, slightly frightened as if it were another scare similar to the Hajimari Road one.

With the static of the TV flickering at first, the channel slowly started to show a video. It was what seemed to be a young girl with a picture of herself and the Aqours’ chibis to her right. Intrigued by the sight of her friends, Ruby turned entirely towards the TV, watching the girl’s video.

_“...Am I live…?”_

Ruby was startled, as the audio on the TV was turned up louder than she expected.

_“Ah, yes I am! Hello everyone! こんばんは。My name is Himeno and this is my first time streaming and I am really excited but also very nervous, ehehehe...”_

Ruby watched the girl, trying to remember anyone who sounded or looked similar to her but this girl just didn’t ring a bell. It was a stranger with their pictures.

_“Anyway, I know people usually use these livestream services to play games or something but I wanna use it to share my beautiful photos with you that I recently took with my new camera that I got for my birthday from my friends! Thank you again!! Anyway, I want you guys out there to react to these photos live and we can talk about it!”_

Losing interest in the video, Ruby took her first step to walk away. There were actual murderers on the loose and standing in the open, watching this nervous girl’s video, was not exactly the best spot to be in.

Before she could continue on however, Ruby’s feet stopped themselves. She had felt she was becoming cold hearted, while she didn’t exactly care for staying around, the video could be useful. It would explain why it was being shown.

Facing the TV again, the red-haired girl decided to enjoy herself despite the static noises that occasionally screeched out. Seeing beautiful pictures could help her mood out as well.

_“But first I would like to talk about something serious, something that worries me and many others. As you might have heard already, the popular school idol group Aqours has recently been reported as missing. When I first heard this, I thought this might just be a misunderstanding, they’re probably just hiding from the public to secretly work on their new album, they just don’t want anyone to find out to surprise everyone with their awesome new music! However that couldn’t be true, that’s just me being way too optimistic. Close friends and family of these members haven’t seen them for a long time, they haven’t been to school either during that time.”_

Ruby’s anxiety began to increase with Himeno’s passing words. It hadn’t been that long, had it?  
How were her parents? Did everyone give up hope on finding them yet?

_“All of this is very strange and worrying. I hope they’re ok. Their last live show was on the 7th of April of this year and since then they’ve been missing…”_

The girl stopped for a bit, it could be heard in her voice that she was close to crying as she ended her sentence,

_“...for 5 months, today it's the 14th of September.”_

Ruby’s heart dropped as well as she did. Finding herself on the floor, Ruby was left speechless. No one had seen them for five months. It couldn’t be when she was just home the other day.

_“B-but I know they’re alright, they HAVE to be alright!! They will return, I am sure of it!!! Everyone’s working hard to find them, we won’t stop until we know for certain they’re safe!”_

Ruby looked at the floor, while she didn’t have the strength to look back up towards the TV, hearing the young girl sound so enthusiastic about them gave her hope. The thought of knowing that people out there were still caring about them and doing everything in their power to search and make sure they were safe was heartwarming to her. The young girl smiled as she looked up towards the dirty wall in front of her. Despite this current situation, she didn’t entirely mind the filth.

Not bothering to look up at the screen anymore but rather the blank wall, the livestream continued on,

_“Well anyway, we should get started, shouldn’t we? Just give me a few seconds and I will be right there with you guys!”_

As her outro began, Ruby could hear CYaRon’s subunit song ‘Kaigantouri de Matteruyo’ playing. Hearing Chika and You brought tears to the young girl’s eyes. She could still remember the day they recorded the song, despite the lyrics of friends being at cross with one another, all three of them sang with their hearts filled with joy.

Not long after the music began though, the TV cut itself off, leaving Ruby in the dark hallway by herself.

With Ruby’s thoughts back on her memories of the song however, her happiness didn’t last very long as she heard heavy breathing coming from further down the hall. Physically tensing while mentally preparing herself to run, Ruby turned slowly to see who was coming for her next.

Ruby held her breath as she saw two figures slowly walk past her, not bothering to spare her a glance. Squinting to get a better look, Ruby felt as if her eyes were deceiving her. She knew those bodies from anywhere.

Jumping towards her feet, Ruby grabbed her flashlight and hurried down the hallway.

As she made it to the end, she caught just a glimpse of grey and orange hair turning towards another hallway to the right.

Something in Ruby was calling for her to go towards them. She had to see her friends, she wanted to know more.

As Ruby walked faster to catch up with the two, she turned down the hallway they went.

The two girls didn’t seem to be going anywhere in a hurry as it didn’t take very long for Ruby to catch up.

Finally reaching the girls, Ruby saw them as they faced away from her. Quickly pointing her flashlight just a bit higher towards their backs, her suspicions were confirmed, it was Chika and You. Rather than leaving her flashlight pointed directly at them, Ruby pointed the light lower, thus revealing both of them holding hands.

The two girls continued walking down the empty hall together, despite having a flashlight being pointed at the back of them. They just didn’t seem to care, it was as if they were in their own little world. Seeing this, Ruby began to feel herself breaking down, finally her two friends she had longed to see after finding out their secret.

“Chika-chan, You-chan! Is it really you guys?”

The two girls finally stopped in their tracks upon hearing Ruby’s words. They didn’t bother to turn around. However, seeing that their first instinct wasn’t to attack, the young girl was overwhelmed with emotion. So much, it began to flow.

“Oh my god I am so glad I found you guys! You won’t believe everything I’ve been through.”

Ruby noticed the two girls weren’t even acknowledging her, yet she just felt she needed to get everything out in that moment. She had held everything in for so long she had to tell someone, anyone, who was willing to listen.

“So I woke up in this scary place, like I’m sure you guys did too. How did you guys get here by the way? How long have you guys been here? I feel like I’ve been here for like a day but I saw a video that said we have been here for five months! Nevermind that. So I came across Riko-chan, or what I thought was Riko-chan, but she didn’t have eyes and she wanted MINE! Can you believe that?!”

Ruby began to continue on about finding Hanamaru, Kanan, and Mari. She could feel her tears streaming down her face at this point and while the two girls didn’t exactly care, it felt great to tell someone.

Chika and You however, began to grow tired of hearing the girl and as they began to walk away again, Ruby quickly shouted out,

“And I know about you guys! I’m so happy for you two. Not going to lie though, I thought You-chan would be the one to confess, am I right, Chika-chan?”

Finally, Ruby was acknowledged. You physically tensed as her words slipped through her teeth,

“What?”

You’s voice was filled with anger, it reminded Ruby all too much of her dream. Despite realizing her mistake, she just couldn’t stop herself,

“I-I read your diary, You-chan. Or at least not all of it. Just the part where you said Chika-chan and you had been going out for a while and maybe a couple other things along the way-”

Ruby’s words were caught in her throat as Chika and You finally faced her.

The two girls were still holding hands however Ruby could see that their hands weren’t connected by choice, but rather they were stitched together as the blood seeped through their forcibly stretched skin. Along their bodies she could see what seemed to be marks of a whip as well as bruises scattered around their visible limbs. Finally, going through You’s eye and into Chika’s mouth was a metal pipe, keeping the two as close as they could be.

Ruby immediately brought her hands to her mouth, in both shock and realization that she shouldn’t have said anything to begin with.

Chika initially was not phased at all by Ruby’s words but You was furious. Upon seeing her young sailor upset, Chika looked towards the small red-haired girl in anger. Ruby stayed still in her spot, seeing as this was the first time she had seen either of the girls out of their happy attitude and she wasn’t exactly sure what to do.

“Why would you do that, Ruby-chan?”

You asked with her voice cracking as an array of emotions attempted to seep out. Ruby could feel her tears forming as You continued on,

“I thought I could trust you. You were such a nice girl, what happened to you?”

Ruby immediately cut in,

“N-No! You-chan, I didn’t mean it! I just saw the diary there and I-”

You stepped forward as Chika followed in suit,

“And you what? Snooped into someone’s personal life without any regard to how they would feel about it? Why try and apologize when you already did it? There’s no point in trying to take it back!”

You screamed back towards Ruby as the young girl began taking a step back. It felt just like her dream, being cornered by a furious You with less and less of a chance to escape.

“You know what this means, right?”

Ruby shook her head back and forth as You’s face went from anger to sadness.

“We have to do away with you.”

Without a second to waste, You and Chika began to charge towards them, both returning to their furious state. Ruby threw her hands in front of herself as she quickly yelled out,

“S-Stop!”

Considering it was You dragging Chika along with her while running, Ruby was able to quickly dodge You’s hands, making her way around the two girls.

“Why are you guys doing this? I just read the diary, I didn’t do anything else!”

You quickly turned towards Ruby, pulling at Chika’s head, as she shouted out,

“But if we let you go, you’ll just tell everyone else!”

With Ruby being where Chika and You stood before, she began to run down the hallway. As the red-haired girl headed down the path they were previously on, she began shouting back,

“I-I promise I wouldn’t ever do that, You-chan! I love you and Chika-chan too much to betray you guys again! Just let me go a-and I promise I’ll forget about everything!”

Ruby could feel her energy dying down as her running turned into sluggish jogging. Luckily the hallway wasn’t long.

She finally entered a large room with nothing around her in defense. She paused for just a moment at the start of it before she heard the girls speak.

“We just can’t do that, Ruby-chan. Besides...”

Ruby could hear their footsteps getting closer and closer but only Ruby’s heart continued to race as her body had long exhausted its energy. Her small body hadn’t been able to keep up with every obstacle she had been running into and it was finally catching up to her.

Turning quickly to see how much space was between her and the girls, Ruby was taken down, belly flopping to the ground before she could even get a look. The force from both of the girls knocked the flashlight out of her hands, allowing it to roll away, dimly lighting the room.

Ruby was defenseless and even though the two girls were constricted by one another, they worked as a team with their strength. Flipping Ruby onto her back so they could see her one last time, You whispered out,

“Don’t you know, you apparently can’t trust anyone nowadays.”

With their conjoined hands on top of Ruby’s chest to hold her down, You lifted her free right hand to strike Ruby as Chika used her left hand to hold down Ruby’s arm. With only a single hand free, Ruby had to think fast, You was obviously stronger in every way so blocking wouldn’t work.

Reaching her hand out to You’s face, Ruby quickly shouted out her words in an attempt to distract You,

“W-Wait, You-chan! Think about what you’re doing! You wouldn’t want to hurt a friend, would you?”

As You was about to bring down her hand, she thought about Ruby’s words,

“But… but you hurt me, Ruby-chan. You hurt both of us.”

You’s grip became softer by a hair as Ruby realized what power her words could have.

“I-I did. I won’t lie, but think about everything? Think about everything we’ve done in the past as CYaRon, as the three of us? Can’t those memories shine bright enough to let this one mistake pass by?”

Ruby smiled at the end of her sentence, letting herself remiss in their past together. While this wasn’t the Chika and You she was used to, she knew their memories still were the same, or at least she hoped.

You hadn’t lightened up in her grip though. Ruby turned to Chika in a change of plans. Attempting to not focus on Chika’s blood running down her face from being tugged around by You during the chase or the protruding metal pipe going through her mouth, Ruby instead decided to focus on Chika’s cherry eyes.

Moving her free hand towards Chika’s, who still gripped her left arm, Ruby placed her hand on top of the orange-haired girl.

“Chika-chan, remember when you first got me to speak to you by luring me with the lollipop? I was so scared when you tossed it in the air and hugged me. I thought you were the craziest girl, but to this day, I’m so glad you did it.”

Chika stared at Ruby in confusion as she was having a hard time recalling all that she was saying.

“Everyone else always ignored me, only Hanamaru ever stood by my side, but with you introducing me to Aqours, it was as if you breathed a new light into me. I still have my shy tendencies but without you, or Aqours, I’d still be in the library reading by myself.”

Hearing Ruby’s words, Chika began to tear up. With her tears beginning falling down her face, she removed her hand from Ruby to wipe them away.

Ruby turned to You as she knew exactly what to do,

“And, You-chan! Don’t you remember when we would stay up late making costumes at your house? Onee-chan would always lecture you, telling you that it’s unhealthy to stay up so late but you’d argue back saying she always stayed up late for school president stuff.”

You finally began to lower her hand to her side as Ruby’s words started to ignite her memories.

“You taught me that if you’re passionate about something, then you should go for it with all you have. You’ll always remember your regrets more than your failures. You always spoke from your heart, a-and never gave up on anyone. Please, don’t give up on me, You-chan. I can still be trusted.”

You and Chika shook their heads as everything was coming back to them. As was the situation at hand.

They both pushed themselves off of Ruby. As they stood above the young girl, their faces showed the mixed emotions of fear and regret.

“We’re so sorry, Ruby-chan. W-We didn’t mean for things to go this far. We’ve just been here for so long, we’re losing ourselves to this place.”

Ruby slowly stood up, not believing her plan was working. Talking to them was actually getting her somewhere.

“D-Do you guys remember these things? Do you guys remember everything?”

You thought hard about what she could remember, focusing on the ceiling in an attempt to help her memory,

“I-I remember some things, like us at practice. I can only recall us… dancing. It was so hot all the time.”

As You recalled her memories, she began to smile as if she were reliving those moments. Chika nudged her, attempting to tell You something but due to the pipe, all that came out were gurgled muffles of the blood and spit in her mouth. You, however, somehow heard Chika’s attempt at speaking as she giggled at the girl.

“Yeah, I remember that too, Chika-chan. A-And do you remember when we snuck out for our first date? It was so scary, but I’ll always remember…”

You began to tear up as she continued to look up at the ceiling, recalling every feeling. Despite Chika not being able to speak, her tears fell as well as she seemed to remember everything along with You.

“You looked so beautiful. I know you were just wearing another one of your mikan sweatshirt’s but… you shined so brightly that night. All those laughs we shared hiding in the dark, trying to avoid everyone's eyes. I knew I had made the right choice in that moment to take a risk in our friendship. Everything we’ve done… I’ll never forget. I can still remember my heart finally being set free that night.”

You’s voice couldn’t keep it together as her emotions began to overflow. Ruby walked towards the two, and while she was terrified of what the outcome could be, she felt she needed to be here for her friends. She reached forward to grab You and Chika’s free hands, encircling them all together.

“Heh… I remember when we used to do this before live shows.”

You barely whispered to herself. Ruby looked at the both of them and in that moment saw them for themselves rather than this new version. She could see the faces of her best friends.

Softly tightening the grip on Chika and You’s hand, Ruby smiled as she felt like she had beaten Yoshiko in her own game.

Ruby looked at both girls with a sparkle in her eyes,

“I think I can fix this.”

You and Chika looked at Ruby as if she were the most precious gem,

“You really think so, Ruby-chan? Can we be fixed? And everyone else as well?”

Ruby grimaced at the thought of fixing the others but she felt as if she had a chance if her older classmates could be helped.

“I think so. I can’t say you guys can come along though. Just wait for me a-and I can get us all out of here. I promise”

Chika and You‘s face twisted in disagreement though. Their grip tightened on Ruby’s hands, making her gasp in shock.

“You’re gonna leave us? But we just got together again. Why can’t we all just go together?”

Ruby could feel herself panicking as Chika and You were slipping through her fingers, just when she thought she had a breakthrough.

“N-No, I mean yes, well it’s just that you guys would be safer here! If you’re back to normal, I don’t know what the others will do to you.”

Ruby tried reasoning with the two but just like a switch, they were back to their old self. Looking between the two of them, You began to get upset as Chika was already muffling something that was blocked through the metal pipe. Her air bubbles still rose through as her blood poured in larger amounts with her struggle in speech.

“You know what, Chika-chan, I think you’re right. Ruby-chan just wants to leave us again. She’s seen what we’ve become and she doesn’t even want to be near us. Right, Ruby-chan?”

With a large pull away from the duo, Ruby retracted her hand. She began to back up, creating a larger distance between them.

“No! I-I promise that’s really not it! I love you guys, but I just have to get help as fast as I can!”

Ruby kept stepping back until she hit the wall as You and Chika gradually stepped closer, with a smile upon their faces.

“No? Well then how about rather than we join you, you join us? We would be just like CYaRon again. Only this time forever!”

Ruby could see the plan in You’s eyes. With two-thirds of CYaRon already being attached, a certain red-haired girl would fit perfectly as You’s right-hand man, literally.

All Ruby could do was shake her head as her hands felt the wall behind her.

“No?”

You questioned Ruby but the young girl didn’t respond, only continuously shaking her head. Becoming frustrated, Chika and You curled their hands into fists as, without saying a word to one another, began charging towards Ruby while yelling out in anger.

Ruby quickly missed their outstretched hands as she fell to the floor. Despite her body screaming at her to take a moment to rest, she knew she just couldn’t. Forcing herself up, Ruby grabbed her previously fallen flashlight while running towards the other side of the room. Reaching the wall, Ruby quickly spun on her heels, ensuring she had her eyes on Chika and You the entire time.

The two girls took a long time to turn. Ruby noticed that Chika had to move faster to get to the other side, which was seemingly hard for her since You was naturally fast on her feet.

Quickly looking around the room, Ruby tried to scope out what within the space could help her out. She’d rather take her chances in here than go through yet another maze similar to Kanan and Mari’s.

Before Ruby could look entirely around, Chika and You began to charge at her again. Using the tactic of jumping out of the way with a sharp turn, Ruby fought against her body as she tirelessly dodged the two.

As they continued the cycle far too many times for the young girl to count, finally something caught Ruby’s eye. It was a vent, small yet just big enough to where maybe a person could climb through, but surely not two. It was blended in with the maroon colored walls, proving why she didn’t spot it as soon as she ran in. Only problem was, it was behind Chika and You. She already barely had time with each turn and her energy was dying out. It was a risk but then again, it was now or never.

Ruby prepared herself, her foot on the back of the wall to give her a pushing start to jump out of the way faster.

As You and Chika charged towards her once more, Ruby jumped out of the way, not giving herself a moment to rest. Her legs felt ready to buckle as she ran with everything she had. Quickly turning her head, Ruby saw Chika and You were barely stopping themselves from their attack.

Focusing on what was before her, Ruby quickly fell to her knees as she grabbed ahold of the vent. Touching it, she realized it wasn’t painted like the walls but it was instead rusted over. The small girl felt as if she could cry with happiness, a rusted metal meant it was a weak metal.

Quickly getting situated on the floor, Ruby shoved her fingers into the vent’s tiny openings to grip the body of the metal better. She bit her lip as she felt the rust cut at her skin but now was not the time to be slow and careful.

With a firm grip on the body, Ruby put her feet on both sides of the vent and put everything she had into the pull. With her muscles straining, she felt a quicker release than she had anticipated. Falling on her back from the force of her strength, Ruby opened her eyes only to see an upside down Chika and You running towards her again.

With a quick scream, Ruby jumped up to her feet and pushed herself into the vent. While planting her feet against the floor to propel herself forward, Ruby accidently pushed herself more upwards than she had anticipated, causing her back to scratch against the stone on top of the vent’s entrance wall. With her tears in her eyes, the young girl kept going forward, not giving herself a moment to lose.

As she threw herself entirely in the vent, Ruby pulled her feet quickly as well. Just as she did that though, You and Chika’s hands were already searching the vent as far as they could reach.

While crawling herself farther into the vent, Ruby finally let her tears fall as she saw Chika and You one last time. Their hands searching the area while screaming out in frustration.

Giving herself a moment to breathe, Ruby rubbed her back, grimacing in pain. She couldn’t tell if the pain was coming from her back or hand injury, everything hurt at that point.

She could feel her body shutting down along with her adrenaline but laying around wasn’t going to get her anywhere.

Ruby turned herself to get further into the vents and further away from You and Chika. As her knees echoed against the metal vents though, she could hear You began to speak,

“Ruby-chan! Come back! Please! W-We didn’t mean it!”

Ruby froze for a moment, listening to You talk. As the two girls heard the echoes stop in the hall, You continued on.

“We’re so sorry, Ruby-chan. We didn’t mean to act this way, we just get so lonely here. Please, just stay with us, we won’t do it again!”

Ruby shook her head as she slowly kept going forward, whispering to herself,

“Just like You-chan said, you apparently can’t trust anyone here.”

Despite telling herself this, Ruby couldn’t help but feel guilty for leaving them. As she thought this, You hit the nail on the head with her words.

“Please, Ruby-chan. It’s so dark here, I-I’m scared…”

Ruby stopped for a moment, hearing a quiet sob, breaking the young girl's heart,

“Ruby-chan… please stay. I get so lonely here. Chika-chan can’t talk with this pipe connecting us and you’re the only one I’ve spoken to, besides Yohane, since it all happened. I get it if you want to leave but, at the very least, please don’t see me different because of this. I just want you back… please. You’re the only one who has seen us as the people we used to be and I guess… I guess I just got selfish and I wanted to feel that again.”

Ruby’s heart physically hurt as she heard You’s words. Closing her eyes tightly to stop the tears, Ruby quickly crawled down the hallway, not wanting to listen to anymore of You’s words.

With her knees echoing in the vent, it helped drown out more of You and Chika’s soft cries. Ruby kept going further and further as she didn’t want to stop until she just couldn’t hear anything again.

* * *

Ruby couldn’t say how long she had been wandering the vents just that she was tired, lost, and extremely hungry.

She had long slowed down her pace. As she kept crawling for a way out at each turn, Ruby felt something under her hand. Picking it up, she glanced at the object, taking note it was a paper. Shining her light upon it, she saw the strange text written across it.

à°‚h£ŸnüÜðnW¶g1§ÿA¬Sç&5ÿ'K'«¬uc¿åEï—ˆ¼âÄKïßÄ\¼K‰ø¤Éàn|Vþ¾ö^-<¯}ˆ¨§R>pCµ]%˜¼7!&ýþê~xŸ%-þÁŠÄ!}ñ?G~OˆÖNà¯åøðŒDlŸ‡À¡ð(ƒ¬6z*d¯ÐÏÀ'^ŠÄñ^µ œúÔÄ!ÌiÛÿà¡³ÁZHx QmFjayBmb3IgbW9yZS4KSSBrbmV3IHlvdSB3b3VsZCByZXR1cm4uCllvdSBzZWVrIGFuc3dlcnMgdG8gd2hhdCBoYXBwZW5lZCB0byB0aGVzZSBwcmVjaW91cyBnaXJscywgaG0/CkRvbid0IHdvcnJ5LCBJIGdvdCB5b3UgY292ZXJlZCBmb3IgdGhlIG5leHQgdHdvLgpIb3dldmVyLCBhcyB5b3UgYWxyZWFkeSBrbm93LCBJIHdhbnQgeW91IHRvIHBsYXkgYSBnYW1lIGZpcnN0LgpJIGhvcGUgeW91IGhhdmUgdGhlIHBhdGllbmNlIHRvIGZpbmlzaCBpdC4KCmFIUjBjRG92TDI5eWRHVnBiQzVrWVhOb2JtVjBMbTl5Wnk5cFoyMHZQMmM5VG5abGFXUjNRMDQ9 á?T×²ò{6'ƒòD'à+^£r}áž†Š:ø*!'Êžk.-2'æz<°æDG<Áo%,0pä.Ü¹mïç  
CóvÞH¨³Mê›Þ''"í›5I~ðFÆ·½ë¯Ä7¾¾øPQÖµ·ð¡ËÔGÊªÉŠÈ¹UUOu‰ž nÑ»;ˆ~ìÞhN †"K

Tossing the paper aside, Ruby didn’t care much for it, rather focusing on just about how lost she had gotten in the vents. She had taken so many turns to escape the two girls that she didn’t exactly remember where she started. Sure, she had passed other vents but it seemed most were blocked by something with a heavy force, not letting her out.

With more turns around each corner, Ruby was close to giving up. However, she finally found a dim light shining through a vent. Nothing blocking it as the others, just an empty space. Rushing over to it on her sore knees, Ruby peeked into it.

The vent wouldn’t allow her to see much, just that it was a large room with what seemed to be cabinets all around.

Pushing her back opposite of the vent, Ruby positioned her feet to expand herself and pop open the exit.

With her strength diminishing, Ruby used what she could to get out. To her luck, each vent was rusted, helping her in her weak state.

With the vent popping like a soda top, it echoed across the large room. Ruby crawled out of the confined area.

Finally within the room, Ruby stood up to stretch her sore muscles. Being in the tiny space for so long cramped her up.

As she looked around, she noticed that the enormous room was in fact a library. It had books aligned all across the bookshelves, reaching higher than the eye can see. Ruby’s eyes sparkled as she saw so many books, it was as if someone were taking care of each one, studying to gain more and more knowledge. With Hanamaru already being in another separate room, Ruby couldn’t help but be reminded of a certain someone else with so much care for knowledge.


	7. Onee-chan

Deafening silence surrounded the space around Ruby. The air was crisp and cold as many libraries were. Nothing but the smell of old paper and dust wafting through the vents.

Ruby looked high at the colossal bookshelves. It was as if they went on for stories upon stories with books to fill the never ending thirst for knowledge.

The young girl was tempted to just stay by her vent. Nothing was in there yet so it was rationally the safest place to be. However, Ruby knew the only way out was through these so-called “Hellfires” that seemed to be around every corner. Taking a deep shaky breath, her feet began their steady pace forward.

Ruby had stopped mentally preparing herself long ago. She figured if she gave herself more time to actually think about the situation she was in, she would only spend more time as a sitting duck rather than moving and getting things done.

Walking down the long aisles of books, Ruby was particularly curious just of who was taking care of this part of the building. She had crossed through nearly everyone. Each person had one awful fate after the other. The person set to the library sure was a lucky one.

The young girl didn’t bother in hiding her presence, letting her eyes wander all around the room while shining her trusty flashlight in all directions. It seemed no one was really around with her.

_‘Maybe this is Yoshiko’s secret lair?’_

Ruby thought to herself as even though her steps echoed in the large room, no one was attacking her yet. It was very strange.

As she got to the end of the aisle, Ruby looked at all the shelves before her. There was a long passageway where she could see down each aisle as it followed with even more twists and turns to expand the room even greater. By now, the young girl didn’t really care much for how confusing each maze got. In some strange way, each one of Yoshiko’s mazes could be beaten.

_‘Meaning so could she.’_

Ruby wasn’t exactly sure where she was going but she did know one thing, she had to face Yoshiko eventually. Whether she liked it or not. She hadn’t really put much thought into it until now, seeming she finally could in peace and quiet. Yes, Yoshiko was going to want to face her at one point, but the question was, to do what? She could have easily tortured her like she had the previous six girls, yet she left her to instead go against them. The possibility of them never meaning to cross paths with one another passed through the young girl’s mind before it was shaken out.

Everything was left entirely unanswered all the time. It was aggravating.

Continuing on with her question of everything, Ruby almost missed the perfectly poised body that stood staring at one of the shelves in an open lobby area of the library.

It was almost as if in that moment Ruby’s entire being began to scream. She knew exactly who it was. No one else in the entire face of the world had sleek black hair cut straight to a fine point nor a perfect figure as if she were a model for the top three ethereal wonders of the world.

Not taking another moment to waste, Ruby began running.

Her legs ached, her chest hurt, even her vision was clouded with new formed tears but she had to see her. This couldn’t be a joke, it had to be her.

Reaching the lobby area, Ruby called out,

“Onee-chan!”

Ruby never stopped running. It didn’t bother her that Dia didn’t turn around. Nothing really bothered her when her sister was mere inches away from her without a single thing seemingly wrong with her.

Finally getting closer and closer, Ruby spread her arms out to hug her sister while also yelling out one last time through her cries,

“Onee-chan!”

Bumping into her back, Ruby released her flashlight as she held onto Dia with both hands, while sobbing into her uniform. Ruby didn’t dare to open her eyes as she didn’t want her moment to come to an end.

It was as if she had finally found her light at the end of the tunnel.

Feeling a shift in their position, the older Kurosawa turned around within Ruby’s grasp. The young girl never broke her stance, still crying now onto her older sister's chest. Dia finally wrapped her arms around her.

The feeling of warmth radiating from Dia was enough for Ruby.

“Oh, Ruby. There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you.”

Hearing her older sister speak without any type of misguided hatred towards her broke the young girl even more.

Unable to hold herself together, Ruby fell to her knees as she let out more of her cries. Her body shook as hiccups cut through her uneven breathing. Going to the ground with her, Dia held her younger sister in her arms as she sobbed into her lap.

“O-Onee-chan, I-I-I’ve been looking f-for you too-o”

Dia sadly smiled at Ruby as she couldn’t even get out a sentence in her current state.

“It’s okay, Ruby. I’ve got you now.”

Holding onto her younger sister tightly, Dia began to hum, feeling it was the most appropriate time to do so. As her older sister, she felt it was her job to calm her down, as an apprehensive Ruby would not be best.

Sensing Ruby’s adrenaline was finally coming down, Dia began to sing aloud the first thing that came to her head, a lullaby for when they were younger,

“You aren’t alone anymore.”

Hearing the beginning of the melody that was oh-so ingrained in her memory as a child, the younger Kurosawa gently closed her eyes, basking in their moment.

“Darling Ruby,”

Dia held onto Ruby tighter.

“Dia’s home.”

It wasn’t but a moment later that Ruby felt a strange sensation, as if she were being lifted.

“Stronger than your monsters know.”

Eyes bursting open, Ruby looked around to see Dia was holding onto her while levitating in the air. Dia’s melody was as slow as her graceful ascent towards the heavens, yet it didn’t feel as if angels would sweep down and save Ruby now.

Fighting against the tight grip, Ruby started thrashing in her sister’s arms. Dia did not care for gripping onto her sister for any longer, letting the young girl fall to the ground. To Ruby’s luck however, she was but a couple feet from the floor.

Hitting the ground on her bottom, Ruby quickly looked up to see Dia, but it wasn’t the one she knew. While every part of her remained the same, one thing gave her away. Dia’s eyes were no longer the crystal cut emeralds she once knew and loved, but rather now a yellow, almost honey-drop color. It was as if someone tried to take the soul from within her, leaving her to be an empty shell of who she once was.

Finally, Dia looked down towards Ruby, with a smile painted across her face,

“Don’t be scared ‘cause Dia’s home.”

Finishing off her song, Dia began to giggle. However, not a moment after, what started gentle, turned into a maniacal laughter echoing throughout the library.

Ruby continued to look at her sister in shock as she could tell Dia wasn’t okay, not even close.

As she calmed down, Dia remained in the air, looking down at her younger sister in an almost distasteful look with a fake smile plastered on her lips.

“You know, Ruby, I’m actually quite surprised you made it this far.”

Wrapping her arm around herself while her hand went to her face in a thinking pose, Dia continued on,

“I mean, on your own, you can’t really do anything if I’m being honest. Someone always has to be there to hold your hand. I held your hand all through grade school, then you got Hanamaru-san in high school. It’s really too bad you left her behind in the room like that. I’m sure she wouldn’t have done the same. Sometimes I can still hear her cries for her “Ruby-chan” in the halls.”

Ruby could feel her tears building as her sister continued on. Sure it wasn’t the real Dia saying it, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t the truth, and the truth hurt.

“And I know everything that goes on around here, no one is here to help you this time.”

Dia’s smile slowly wiped from her face as she became more serious. Dia lifted her hand from her face in an upwards motion. Following her was a swarm of books all beginning to be lifted from each of the shelves surrounding them,

“So congratulations, Ruby, for getting so far.”

Pointing her finger up, all of the books stood still as if time had froze,

“However, this is your last stop.”

Bringing her hand down, Dia began throwing books at Ruby. The speed at which they went caused her hair to sway with the wind, creating an intense force forward to the defenseless Ruby. While the young girl was still sitting on the floor, she managed to twist out of the way quickly, dodging a majority of the books being thrown her way. Others just barely scraped past her ankles.

Ruby quickly jumped to her feet while grabbing her flashlight, and as if her body was already getting used to it, she began to run.

Dia let out a scoff as she began to follow Ruby. It wasn’t natural for her sister to be so quick on her feet. It irritated her.

Ruby ran back towards the aisles in an attempt to lose her sister within the dimly lit halls. Already developing a plan in her head, Ruby took a left down one of the many rows of aisles. Taking her sharp turn, she was able to get a peak back and see Dia, who was already steadily following her.

As Dia gracefully stalked her prey, all around her, books were being pulled from their shelves, slowly following her. One after the other, book upon book were slowly being tossed Ruby’s way, however with the library being so enormous in size, it was hard to get a good aim on her. Constantly missing such a small and weak target frustrated Dia to no end.

Ruby could feel herself getting lost in the maze of the library again, but this time it was to her own advantage. As she twisted and turned down the aisles without a clear destination, she finally brought her sudden plan into action.

Taking a sharp turn, the young girl threw her flashlight down the aisle opposite of her as she kept running forward.

Seeing the light head another direction, Dia followed in suit.

As Ruby got far enough away, she quickly hid behind one of the bookshelves, keeping her eye on her older sister in the sky.

Dia began to laugh as she seen the flashlight roll on the ground,

“Tripping over your own feet again, Ruby? How pitiful. It’s no wonder Kanan-san was able to catch you so fast. And do you know what?”

Dia left the question opened ended as she neared the hall closer and closer, bringing more books to her side,

“I wouldn’t have been so nice to a simple mistake. Mistakes cost you everything, Ruby. And you’re going to have to learn one way or another.”

Finally turning down the hall, Dia’s hand was already lifted in attack. However, she was met with just a simple flashlight in an empty hall. Dia began to clench her fist as Ruby was never hard to catch. She always tripped, fell, and cried for help. With her fist shaking in frustration, the room began to vibrate as Dia’s anger poured out more and more. Books began to fall from shelves as if there were an earthquake. Sharply turning away, Dia began to continue searching for the young girl.

Ruby stood still for a moment as she waited for the coast to be clear. Quickly looking down the hall from her hiding spot, Ruby checked out her surroundings as she didn’t want to be caught by an angry Dia.

With no sign of her sister, Ruby began to tip-toe over to the flashlight.

Her plan was to keep a back and forth game with Dia until she could get away. It had worked with Chika and You partially smoothly. If she could just find the vent again, everything would be at peace once more.

As she neared the flashlight, something caught the young girl’s eye. It was a book that had fallen onto her light. Ruby wasn’t too sure if it was one of the ones Dia threw or that had fallen from her anger.

Picking it up, Ruby saw it was an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ book. As if all at once, it hit her. She remembered thinking about the book earlier before she had faced Riko, when the only problem at hand was leaving the locked room. Oh how she longed to be as brave and strong as Alice. The only thing Ruby had done in this ‘Wonderland’ was run away. Alice didn’t run away but rather she fought and fought until the end when she could finally return home.

_‘Maybe this is what I need to do.’_

Ruby thought to herself. Running away was just leading her into more and more trouble, but she had never thought to confront her demons.

Tightening her grip on the book, Ruby didn’t want to do it. She didn’t want to fight back against her sister. She’d rather do it against the one who actually hurt everyone. But, it had to start somewhere.

Spinning on her heels towards the direction Dia went, Ruby yelled out,

“Dia!”

Upon hearing her name, Dia stopped as she clenched her fists. Her annoyance grew more as she heard her sister even speak her name. Using all of her power, she began flying at a high speed towards the sound. As she flew by, loose papers were spewed around as well as books being lifted from the ground and shelves, all to follow Dia.

The young girl saw as her sister came closer and closer. Hardening her pose, Ruby looked at Dia.

No fear, but rather a new stance of courage.

Dia hated it.

As if on cue, the older girl threw her hand out, almost in a grabbing motion, and began tossing books at Ruby, but in her blinded rage, as well as far distance, they didn’t quite reach their target.

With papers and books falling from the sky, it was as if everything happened in slow motion.

Dia was less than 15 feet away. So close yet so far.

It was a chance to take.

Ruby used all of her strength to pull back her arm.

With her eyes on the prize, there was only one thing left to do.

Taking a step forward, Ruby threw the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ book that was in her hands straight towards Dia.

Something in Ruby didn’t believe the book would do much considering it was just a child’s book, yet as soon as it left her grip, she felt nothing but regret. She watched as it hit Dia, corner first, at the base of her forehead. It knocked Dia’s head back and Ruby saw as her sister’s yellow eyes rolled into the back of her head before she shut them.

Hitting the ground in front of Ruby, Dia was surrounded by books suddenly falling with loose papers accompanying them as they no longer had anyone to control them.

Ruby’s eyes began to water as she saw her sister laying motionless in front of her.

“D-Dia?”

Shakily reaching her hand out, Ruby began to whimper out once more,

“Onee-chan?”

Not hearing a response, Ruby finally burst into tears and ran towards her sister.

Having courage didn’t mean she had forgotten who she was at heart.

Falling to her knees, Ruby looked at Dia. The older Kurosawa was laying on her stomach, one hand out while the other remained on her side with her face flat against the floor. Despite the strange position she was in, Ruby quickly moved Dia’s head to her side while lifting her bangs to see the damage she did. There was a large bloody patch where the book struck her.

“No, no, no, no! I’m so sorry, onee-chan!”

Ruby’s tears fell more as she saw what she had done to her older sister. Quickly bringing her hand towards Dia’s forehead to apply pressure to the wound, Dia flinched.

“Ah, that hurts.”

As Dia weakly attempted to swat away the hand that was touching her, Ruby instead hugged Dia’s entire head.

“Onee-chan, you’re okay!”

Dia slowly got up, gently attempting to push her sister away,

“Ruby, please, I have a massive headache right now. Could you see if we have any water?”

As Dia looked towards Ruby while asking her question, the red-haired girl saw the emerald in her eyes shine again. A bit dazed, but still the Kurosawa trade mark. Ruby didn’t listen to what her sister had said but rather hugged her even tighter while laughing out tears of joy.

“I-I missed you so much, onee-chan.”

The older girl was in a confused state. She didn’t understand why her sister looked so dirty, why she was in a dark area, or why she had such an intense headache.

Bringing her hand to her aching head, Dia could feel the blood dripping down her face.

“Oh, so that wasn’t a dream.”

Ruby looked up at Dia, slightly wincing from seeing the pain she brought her. Rather than letting her younger sister feel guilty, Dia did the only thing she thought to do. Reaching forward, the older girl finally embraced Ruby in a hug,

“Thank you for bringing me back, Ruby. I-I’m so sorry for everything I did. I just, I don’t know what happened or how I let it happen.”

Dia choked on her sentence as she could feel her tears building. She had to stay strong for her sister however.

As if a switch went off in her, Ruby immediately jumped up, looking at Dia in the eyes,

“Wait, how do I know you’re the real onee-chan?”

Dia looked at Ruby in confusion. The young girl already knew she was the real Dia, considering her eye color had returned, however she still had to be sure. Dia began to scratch her mole as she broke eye contact,

“I am not sure how I could prove myself considering if someone took over my body, they could see into my brain and thus know everything I need to say in order to pass a simple test, however I do believe that as my sister, you might be ab-“

Ruby cut Dia off with another hug whispering out,

“Yeah, you’re onee-chan.”

The sisters smiled towards one another, basking in their moment before finally getting up from their positions. They weren’t really sure what to do next. Ruby, however, had something on her mind first,

“Hey, onee-chan, I think I have an idea.”

Dia looked towards Ruby in curiosity,

“An idea for?”

“I think we can bring back the other Hellfires, like how I did with you!”

Dia flinched at the word “Hellfires”, as she remembered hearing it so often.

“Ruby, I don’t think that’s possible. It might be a bit too late for them.”

Ruby looked at Dia as her older sister looked down upon saying her own words. She seemed to be hiding something with sorrow laced into her sentence.

“But, how do you know?”

Dia sighed. She really didn’t want to let her younger sister down nor begin to think about all she knew about the Hellfires but it was best to tell the young girl the truth before she got her hopes up.

“Ruby, the only reason you could bring me back is simply because I’m not, well, dead. You do realize that from everything that has happened to the other girls, none of them could survive that. Even if there was a way to bring them back, I don’t believe that it would be what is best, they wouldn’t want to be alive for that type of torture.”

Ruby looked down at the floor as she had thought about everyone. They didn’t deserve to be walking around those halls without being properly put to rest but bringing them back to directly face their slowly tortured human bodies once more seemed just as worse.

Dia noticed the younger girl’s dejected behavior, and in an attempt to change the subject, she brought her hand to Ruby’s face to get a good look at her. There were tiny bruises scattered across her, almost blending in with the dirt that had streaked its way all around her once porcelain skin.

“What happened here?”

Dia slid her thumb lightly against Ruby’s nose as a purple blotch spread its way down the slope of her face. Flinching at the tenderness it was still in, Ruby answered back,

“Oh, I think that was when I met Kanan-chan. We had a bit of an altercation, you could say.”

Though Ruby smiled at her attempt at a joke, Dia didn’t laugh. It pained her to know that Ruby was fighting for her dear life, trying her best at avoiding confrontations. However, a small part of Dia was proud that Ruby had faced her problems for a change.

“Ruby, where did you get that kind of courage to go against me like that? It felt as if only a couple nights ago you were afraid of everything, what happened?”

Ruby smiled as she was praised by her older sister,

“Well, I was a bit inspired.”

Ruby pointed over towards the ‘Alice in Wonderland’ book that was laid across the floor with bloody marks on it. However, something else caught her attention, there was a stray piece of paper in it.

Running over towards the mess of everything, Ruby grabbed ahold of the book, quickly flipping the papers for the piece of paper that had seemed all too familiar. As it fell out across the ground, Ruby quickly saw it was another one of the strange papers.

ù!]•ÚÓ2}~—ªî½NíËn�ªF£Q¾EáÒìÎ¼xñ¢BU�´/Á!çÕ«WFàá;Ù¬Š«k¤v9BÉ9HíkOC5v"ß¶À÷£4õúm/©ü·þ£ÄöúLG¿&ÖyMíŒ&ÞãUþZ©óå+>éæ'uZM�üÈííí<µC¥}Þ«Í}÷ú�SÒî[u:çªLæêWÚ SSd2ZSBnb3QgYW5vdGhlciBnYW1lIGZvciB5b3UuCkF0IHRoaXMgcG9pbnQgeW91IGFyZSBhbHJlYWR5IHVzZWQgdG8gaXQsIHNvIGxldCdzIG5vdCB3YXN0ZSBhbnkgbW9yZSB0aW1lLgpUaG91Z2ggYmUgd2FybmVkLCB5b3UgbmVlZCBhIHNtYXJ0IGJyYWluIGZvciB0aGlzIG9uZS4KCkVuam95OiBhSFIwY0RvdkwzZDNkeTV0WldScFlXWnBjbVV1WTI5dEwyWnBiR1V2YkhwdVptWmhiWHBsY1hOeGIzbGxMME5oY0hOc2IyTnJYMGh2YkcxbGN5NTZhWEF2Wm1sc1pRPT0= ó~�ŸÕæççyi6v&Ï�šœ%)Í=h’�ò›k4ŠéT�û£~À©Ç¬õß¡5@.q9hkOC5v"ß¶À÷£4õúõëR¡2—¹¹9>•áÚB³³TÔæ•QÞŒ&ÞãUþZ©óå+>éæ%·ñAcù!]•ÚÓ2}~—ªî½NíËn�ªF£Q¾EáÒìÎ¼xñ¢BU�´/Á

Dia walked towards Ruby, watching the young girl eyeing the paper. Ruby turned towards her older sister with the paper in hand,

“Onee-chan, do you know what these are? I keep finding them all around the place, hidden in a bunch of different areas, but I don’t know what they mean.”

Dia grabbed the paper from her sister’s hands, she knew what it was, as she had noticed them in her “dream”, but explaining it would be difficult.

“I’ve seen these before, Ruby. Yoshiko-san had them laying around the place before, well, she did something to me. I recall seeing them later as well, however I couldn’t ever understand how she knew what was written on them.”

Ruby looked at Dia in shock, she knew something had happened to her older sister to give her such supernatural powers but she was curious at how,

“What exactly did she do to you?”

Dia could see curiosity written all over Ruby’s face.

“I can’t explain it, it’s like she put me in a dream. I saw everything that was happening around me, yet I had no control over it.”

Dia left her sentence at that as she didn’t want to think about the entire process,

“Well, we have a multitude of books here, why not search for some that could help us, come on Ruby.”

Dia was already headed towards the multi-language section of the library before Ruby could get out another word. Following in suit, Ruby jogged by her sister's side.

* * *

Hours had passed and before they knew it, there were books all around them as they tried and failed at understanding the string of strange symbols. Rather than focusing everything on the encrypted letters, Ruby was still curious about everything from another person’s perspective.

“Onee-chan, do you remember how you got here?”

Dia looked up from her book, allowing Ruby to see the damage she had done. It had been a while since the fight and the blood that once ran down her face had long dried. It was now rubbed across Dia’s forehead under her bangs. The older girl began to think hard about her memory,

“I remember being at home. I was in my room getting ready for a meeting father wanted me in on for the family business. Except when I closed the door to begin changing, someone jumped out and attacked me.”

Dia brought her hand to her forehead. Thinking so hard was beginning to bring her pain but when she glanced at Ruby, she could see she still wanted more details. Not wanting to disappoint, Dia continued on,

“Past that, I woke up in an unfamiliar place. It was dark and I was tied up. After a while someone appeared in the room, or maybe they were there the entire time? Yoshiko-san turned on a light. There was just a single bulb hanging in the room. A-And she started doing things, bad things…”

Dia’s headache throbbed more and more in her skull as she brought both of her hands to her head now,

“I-I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Ruby didn’t push her sister as she saw it brought her great agony.

Closing the book in front of her, Ruby got up and walked towards Dia. As the older sister looked up from her hands, Ruby smiled at her before closing the book before her as well,

“Ruby, what are you doing?

The young girl just grabbed ahold of Dia’s hand as she tugged her out of her chair.

“Well we aren’t finding any clues here and I don’t think we ever will.”

Ruby grabbed the letter containing the undeciphered message and put it in her pocket.

“We’ll take the letter with us in case we find out how to figure it out later. For now though, I think we should keep moving and find a way out of here.”

Dia smiled at her younger sister, taking charge of the situation. Allowing Ruby to tug her by the hand, the young Kurosawa began to walk down the halls. Finding her way out was much easier when her sister was by her side to help.

Walking out of the destroyed library, Ruby and Dia found themselves down a new hallway as they searched for their way out with each other by their side.


	8. Fallen

“Happy Birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear Ruby. Happy birthday to you!”

The sounds of her best friends’ singing filled Ruby’s ears as she watched them all harmonize with one another in front of her. It was a special day for the young girl as it was finally her 16th birthday party.

The Aqours members had been working hard for the past couple weeks as their popularity had skyrocketed tremendously, leaving them with little to no time to relax together as they used to. However, with all the girls in one room smiling with one another, it made each of those long hours worth it.

Ruby watched all the girls surround her, singing their melody, as she sat at the table. She was slightly nervous from having all eyes on her but she faked a smile. She didn’t want the girls to think she didn’t appreciate their efforts.

As she looked around at each of them, something caught her eye. Dia was walking towards her, holding a birthday cake.

Their song receded as Dia brought the cake towards the front of the table. Everyone was beaming with excitement, especially the third years, as Ruby took a look at the cake before her.

The cake was covered in chocolate frosting, slightly messy on certain sides, appearing to be homemade. Strawberries unorderly surrounded the cake along with her birthday candles scattered all in between. It looked as if they had run out of room after the fruit was placed.

Finally, written on the chocolate frosting was the pink cursive penmanship of none other than Dia herself, spelling out ‘Happy Birthday Ruby!’. The young girl could tell that handwriting from anywhere.

“Make a wish, Ruby.”

Ruby looked up to hear Dia’s voice before her. All of the girls were still waiting patiently for the birthday girl to proceed so they could continue to enjoy the party properly. The small girl closed her eyes.

_‘I don’t want this to ever end.’_

Intaking a large breath, Ruby blew out her candles. All around her were the cheers of the other girls while they simultaneously yelled out,

“Happy birthday, Ruby-chan!”

As Ruby smiled up at all of them before her, Dia brought out a plastic knife for her to use. Taking ahold of it, Ruby looked at the cake sadly before saying to the other girls,

“Ah, I almost feel bad for cutting it. You guys worked so hard on it.”

Kanan stepped forward, placing her hands on the other third years by her side,

“It’s your birthday, Ruby-chan, cut the slices! Dia, Mari, and I would gladly make you another one some other time.”

Ruby looked at the cake once more before at Kanan,

“Wait, just you three made this?”

Mari then proceeded to jump in front of Kanan, taking her spot,

“ _Oh yes!_ We wanted to do something special for our little sister!”

Dia was next to interrupt, slightly annoyed at Mari’s energetic playfulness within their small space,

“Mari-san, weren’t you the one who suggested we give up while we were barely shopping for the ingredients and just order a large cake instead?”

Kanan put her arms over Mari’s shoulders, as if she were hugging her from the back,

“Yeah, Mari, you didn’t seem that excited to join us. Besides, the cake you wanted was more for weddings. I don’t think we needed to feed THAT many people.”

Kanan laughed as she thought of the memory of Mari putting on a spectacle at the store in an attempt to convince the other two. Mari couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed as she was getting double teamed in front of Ruby.

“We needed a big cake so we could feed everyone! Besides, you guys act like we would’ve had any leftovers with our bottomless pit over there.”

The third years laughed together at Mari’s joke as Ruby couldn’t help but join. They were all like her older sisters and while only one of them ever got that rightful title, in her heart she couldn’t help but cherish each one of them greatly.

* * *

Ruby sat at the center table as the party had continued on with joyful laughter, but Ruby couldn’t help but feel something was off. Not wanting to ruin the party though, she carried on chatting with her friends.

Hanamaru stood from the table they were all sitting at first, approaching Ruby with a gift in her small hands. As she stood by her side, Hanamaru presented it forward, throwing Ruby off guard. She hadn’t been paying attention to her surroundings so she was quite surprised.

“Here you go, Ruby-chan! I got you a little something, zura.”

Ruby looked at her friend before reaching out her hands to take ahold of the gift,

“Thanks, Maru-chan. But I told you, you didn’t have to get me anything.”

Hanamaru smiled,

“You say that every year, Ruby-chan, but I can’t let an occasion go where you aren’t showered with gifts, zura.”

Ruby began to open her gift, already noticing it was shaped like a book. It was a usual thing to get those types of gifts from Hanamaru, not that Ruby minded. Each book reminded her of how much her friend cherished her, as Hanamaru picked each one with love.

“I think you’ll like my gift, zura. It’s one of my favorites and besides, I don’t really need it anymore so I want you to have it, zura. Take good care of it, okay?”

Ruby pulled out the book from the wrappings. Reading the title, it was the folktale ‘Alice in Wonderland’. The red-haired girl had only really seen the tellings of the tale that were turned into animated movies, never the original content.

Ruby quickly got up to hug the girl as she whispered out a quick thanks to her once more. After seeing Ruby was already being given gifts, each of the girls looked at one another as if they knew it was time for that part of the party.

You and Chika jumped up at the same time, wanting Ruby to receive their gifts next. They quickly made eye contact before silently challenging one another. As if they were children again, Chika ran forward, grabbing her gift from under the table, while laughing out at You behind her. You followed in suit, grabbing a hold of her own gift. Considering who was the more athletic one of the two, You quickly cut in front of Chika. The two girls giggled while slightly pushing each other to reach their goal. However, it was You who ultimately got to Ruby first.

The future sailor presented Ruby with an open sketchbook, designs scattered all over the pages. As Ruby took hold of it, she stared in awe as it was a drawing of her in a brand new costume, having multiple bright colors and candies surrounding her 2D version of herself perfectly. The costume was designed entirely head to toe, even in the sketches it showed all sides of the costume as well. All around the pages were multiple drawings of a small Ruby striking adorable poses.

“I made this costume for you. I know we’ve been kind of busy lately with trying to rack our brains with new stuff, but I thought this would be nice to make together someday. Just an us bonding time without the stress of other things, you know?”

Ruby held her drawing close to her chest as she bowed her head,

“Thank you so much, You-chan!”

Looking up, Ruby saw as You proudly straightened her pose before saluting. The young girl couldn’t help but do a tiny salute back, earning a wide smile from the future sailor.

You stepped aside as Chika now presented her gift. She fully extended her arms and with a large smile she quickly belted out in a cheerful tone,

“Mikan!”

The loud yell startled everyone in the room as all eyes were on Chika. She couldn’t help but be bashful in that moment, minorly taking back her energetic self just a bit,

“Ah, sorry! I-I mean, happy birthday, Ruby-chan!”

Chika put down her gift in front of Ruby, as it was a large box of mikans. The fruits still had stems and leaves attached to it, as if they were freshly picked that day.

“I couldn’t really think of anything to give you for a present so here are some mikans from yours truly! They’re Chika approved since, you know, I eat them everyday.”

Ruby bowed her head before grabbing one of the fruits, they looked perfectly ripe without a single fault to any of them that she could see. Chika did have a good eye for them. Before she could think twice, Ruby said aloud,

“Thank you, Chika-chan. I can’t help but think that if I was Yoshiko-chan, I probably would’ve banished you from my presence or something for giving me a gift like this.”

Ruby finished off her sentence with a laugh as the others joined in, all knowing of Yoshiko’s extreme hatred of those tiny fruits.

As their laughter faded away though, a certain fallen angel's retaliation had yet to make its presence.

Ruby scanned the room only to find out that Yoshiko actually wasn’t present. She couldn’t help the dejection leaking from her voice as she asked out to the room,

“Wait, where is Yoshiko-chan?”

The girls all looked around at one another, trying to search for Yoshiko’s distinctive bun, yet she couldn’t be found. Dia was the first to rise from her seat, quickly grabbing her phone,

“I’ll see if I can manage to get in contact with her. Considering her bad luck, she must’ve been held up. Give me a second, I’ll be right back.”

Dia walked over to the farther corner of the room to have some privacy. Sensing that she didn’t want to be listened in on, Riko decided to get up next, carrying her gift towards Ruby.

Riko stood in front of Ruby with her phone and a pair of headphones attached. Giving Ruby the buds, Riko explained,

“Ruby-chan, first off, happy birthday! I wanted to do something special for your big day, so I composed a tiny music piece just for you.”

Ruby smiled, giving a quick thanks as she took the headphones. Placing a bud in her ear, Riko quickly cut in before she put in the next one,

“Oh, and I want to say sorry really quickly. There were supposed to be lyrics added in but I couldn’t exactly get them done in time, I hope you can forgive me for that.”

Ruby simply beamed at the older girl, slightly amused that she would ever be upset about anything like that when she just made her her own personal music piece,

“Oh, it’s fine Riko-chan. I don’t mind whatsoever. I’m happy with anything you would have given me.”

Riko let out a sigh of relief as she went into her playlist to pick out Ruby’s birthday melody.

Watching from afar, Dia saw as Ruby closed her eyes and was lost in Riko’s music. Seeing her happy brought a smile to the older sister's face but it was cut short as she remembered the talk she was about to have with a certain ‘friend’ of hers. Looking down at the name lit across her screen, Dia attempted to call Yoshiko. It didn’t come to any surprise when there was no answer but Dia wasn’t one to give up quickly.

Dia continued on, becoming more and more agitated with each ring. The process was taking longer than she had expected. Dia turned once more to see how Ruby was doing only to see she was still enjoying herself. Mari decided to butt into Ruby’s personal listening party though,

“Why does only Ruby get to hear it, Riko? We’d all love to listen to your masterpiece.”

Before Mari could reach over to the headphones in Ruby’s ears, Riko smacked her hand away,

“No, it’s Ruby-chan’s gift so she gets to hear it first. Only then the rest of you guys can too.”

Mari pouted but before she could retaliate, Kanan added in,

“Also, Dia is making a phone call right now, remember? Maybe we should give her some silence.”

The girls all looked towards Dia and while she smiled back, the facade quickly fell as she heard yet another dial tone. Quickly turning from the rest of the girls, Dia whispered to the phone as she tapped Yoshiko’s icon again,

“I know you’re there, pick up the phone.”

Though she heard the beeps again, this time she finally broke through. Just a sudden cut off from the ringing let Dia know the phone call was answered. Before Yoshiko could even breathe though, Dia immediately questioned her,

“Yoshiko-san, where are you?”

Yoshiko, who was confused as to what Dia was talking about, replied back,

“Home, where else? Why are you calling? You interrupted me in the middle of a livestream. You know Saturday nights are-”

Before Yoshiko could continue however, Dia had long grown aggravated of their short conversation,

“I know you are not complaining about your livestream right now. Do you even know what tonight is?”

Yoshiko stopped in her tracks. She thought hard about her question as she knew if she got it wrong, she would probably die at the hands of Dia’s wrath. Her hair bun would be mounted on the Kurosawa wall. Yet, not a single answer was appearing in her head.

“Saturday night?”

Dia couldn’t say she was surprised at that answer. In the calmest voice she could muster up, Dia replied back,

“It’s Ruby’s birthday party today. She hand delivered you her invitation last week. I should know, I was right there with her.”

Guilt couldn’t help but creep up the fallen angel’s spine as it all came back to her at once.

“Oh, umm, I-I didn’t know.”

“Okay, well are you going to make it?”

Yoshiko thought about the question. She wavered her options before deciding her answer,

“You see, I’d like to, but tonight is kind of a big night for my livestream and-”

Dia cut Yoshiko off before she could continue though,

“I really can’t believe you, Yoshiko-san. You’d really rather prioritize your fallen angel shtick over one of your closest friends' birthday? She was expecting you to be here. You didn’t even have to get her anything, as your presence would’ve been enough, but you can’t even do that?”

Dia could feel her rage building as well as her voice getting louder but she didn’t want to attract the attention of others. Yoshiko tried explaining herself as Dia took a moment to breathe,

“I did want to go! It’s just that this livestream is important too and-”

With her final ounce of calmness, Dia told Yoshiko,

“How could I ever expect anything from you, Yoshiko-san? Goodnight.”

Dia could hear Yoshiko try and say something back but she had already clicked to end the call. She couldn’t bear to hear the girl again.

As she stared at the phone, Dia tried to clear her mind but she couldn’t stop herself from the anger and disappointment towards Yoshiko.

Looking over to see how everyone else was doing, Dia didn’t realize how long her call had gone. Riko’s song was long over as the girls all sat at the table eating cake. She listened to all the fun they were having with one another.

“Hanamaru-chan, how many slices did you have? There’s only two left. I swear I saw like six more! Where are you hiding them?”

Chika questioned Hanamaru as her face was covered in frosting. While everyone laughed at their banter, Mari looked over at Kanan. She decided to lay herself on the young diver as she said aloud, wearing her usual smug look,

“I told you, Kanan. We should’ve gone with the big cake.”

Kanan simply rolled her eyes, slightly pushing Mari off of her. Catching sight of Dia amidst her annoyance with Mari, she could tell something was off with the girl. Dia usually was one to smile at the Aqours antics, even if it were a forced one, but it seemed she had something else on her mind. Kanan continued to look towards Dia, almost tempted to go over to ask her what was wrong.

Dia caught sight of Kanan’s worried expression though before she could even stand. She knew Kanan would want to find out anything that was troubling her and it would truly only make her current situation worse.

Taking a deep breath, Dia composed herself before walking back towards the table, ready to put on a front for the girls.

* * *

The taps of shoes echoing the halls, filling Dia and Ruby’s ears. They had been walking on their path since they had left the library. With no direction in mind of where they were going, they instead just observed their surroundings in silence, waiting for a clue as to where to go next.

Dia couldn’t help as her mind replayed the events of Ruby’s birthday over and over. She wanted to forget all about it, yet the older girl couldn’t get it out of her head. Guilt began to build in her as she scoured the halls. The guilt of harassing Yoshiko that night as well as telling lies that is.

“Hey, Ruby, do you remember your birthday party last year?”

Ruby, who was busy shining her flashlight in all directions, looking for clues, was taken off guard from the sudden conversation striker.

“Oh, yeah. Why do you mention it?”

Dia played with her fingers for a moment before continuing on,

“Well, do you remember why Yoshiko-san didn’t show up that night?”

Ruby thought back for a moment. Her memory was a little hazy as she hadn’t thought about that day in so long. Other memories had long taken their spot in her head.

“Yeah, I think you said Yoshiko-chan wasn’t feeling that well and she didn’t wanna get others sick if she came over. Along with some other stuff like curses and the second black plague or something.”

Ruby giggled recalling the conversation before a sudden thought popped to her head,

“You know, thinking back on it, I guess she was really sick since she didn’t even call beforehand. That must’ve been some cold.”

Ruby fondly thought of that memory. It wasn’t anything new for Yoshiko to fall ill before a big event so Ruby never held it against her. Dia, however, couldn’t let Ruby live in that lie.

“Ruby, I’m really sorry to say this but, I lied that night. Yoshiko-san wasn’t sick at all. She was doing some livestream and forgot all about the party.”

Ruby felt her heart drop in her chest. She looked towards the ground as she continued walking, she didn’t want her sister to see her hurt by those words.

“But, why did you lie for her?”

Dia sighed as she explained herself,

“I didn’t want to ruin your party. We had fought over the phone while you were having fun with everyone. At the time it seemed like it was best to lie to everyone but now, with the uncertainty of our fate as well as no clear reason as to why Yoshiko-san is doing all of this, I feel like I had to tell you.”

Ruby stayed quiet as she heard Dia continue on. She was barely able to hear her older sister with her own thoughts screaming in her head.

“I had only told Kanan-san about what happened. She saw right through my act and questioned me. Out of everyone, she is the most reliable to me, so I told her the truth. She agreed that we should keep up the lie, as nobody wanted to ruin your big day.”

Dia was still surprised to this day that Kanan was able to get the truth out of her so quickly. The older Kurosawa had even made sure to catch her habit of scratching her mole but it seemed Kanan didn’t need that to figure her out.

Dia shook her head of the thought as she looked over towards Ruby, slightly expecting her to be in tears but the young girl walked with no emotion on her face. It was as if the new information clouded her response time. Dia couldn’t help but regret spilling out the truth. Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to say it at all.

“I’m sorry, Ruby. I know you’re older now and I should’ve not lied in the beginning. I just always see you as my little sister that I have to protect against the world.”

Ruby didn’t have enough energy in her to cry about it anymore. Instead, there was something else burning inside her chest,

“It’s okay, onee-chan. I forgive you, you were only looking out for me on my big day. Thanks for keeping that day special for me.”

Dia nodded her head as they continued their walk. Silence enveloped the two as they steadily tracked the halls. Ruby couldn’t stop herself from thinking about Yoshiko and all the other lies she had possibly been fed about her.  
Then, almost instantaneously, a switch went off in Ruby. She didn’t want to play nice with Yoshiko anymore. Not after each and every thing she had done was finally coming to light. Ruby couldn’t let that show though, she had to remain calm and not think irrationally in her current situation.

As the two girls walked down the hall, they noticed a change in their surroundings. A door finally appeared, breaking the continuous hallway streak they had. As they walked past it, Ruby felt a shiver down her spine. Something wasn’t right about where they were.

Flashing the light more ahead, Ruby took sight of yet another door, this one however was slightly cracked open. Ruby reached out her hand, as if to stop Dia. Keeping her light at the door, Ruby looked towards her older sister to give a silent warning of what was ahead. Dia understood as she now slowly tip-toed towards the entrance.

Nearing the door, Ruby noticed something on the floor. Papers were scattered around the entrance, leading inside the room. Shining her light to get a better look, the red-haired girl was able to read what was on them.

No words filled the pages but rather music notes danced across the staves, playing a silent melody only a musician could bring to life.

Taking a closer peek into the room, Ruby saw that the floors were filled with more and more symphonies.

“We’re back at the beginning.”

The words left Ruby’s mouth before she could think about it. Dia looked at Ruby curiously as the young girl shined the light into the room.

No music came from the room, unlike the first time the red-haired girl had stumbled upon it, nor were there any shadows to indicate a certain eyeless junior was there.

Dia could feel a sense of remembrance as she followed Ruby’s flashlight around the room. Despite it all feeling like a dream, now, standing before Riko’s room, it proved that all of it was as real as it got.

“I can’t believe Yoshiko-san did all of this. It really makes you wonder what is wrong with her.”

Before Ruby could attempt to think of a possible sane answer, Dia realized something. Turning her head down the hall, Dia continued on,

“Hold on, if this is Riko-san’s room, then if I recall,”

Pointing her finger towards the door they had previously passed, the older Kurosawa felt her heart drop,

“Hanamaru-san’s room is just down there.”

Ruby didn’t dare to look in the door's general direction. Instead, Ruby Looked down at the floor, whispering out,

“I-I know. I don’t want to remember.”

Dia understood as she knew just how Ruby left the poor girl. Rather than thinking further on her decision, Ruby quickly shook the thoughts from her head before giving the door before her a gentle push. Knowing that there was no music to be heard was only slightly reassuring but Ruby had to be careful, just in case.

As she took a step into the room, hunching down as to not be seen, Ruby quickly shone her light all around to check her surroundings. She only found the reflection of a few bookshelves in the corners of the room as well as the main chalkboard and piano that were already there before.

Straightening herself up, Ruby walked into the room fully as Dia followed in suit. Considering Dia hadn’t been in the room, or at least not that she could remember it fully, she began to look around. Ruby, who had long seen everything in the main part of the room, walked over towards the bookshelves. She hadn’t noticed them before when she had first entered, as she was so focused on Riko. Now, there was time to explore.

Ruby began looking through the shelves, taking note of all the subjects that ranged in numerous books. The shelves were stocked with dictionaries as well as musical pieces. It was pretty ironic considering Riko couldn’t exactly see.

Ruby glanced over the books as they couldn’t assist her in any way. Looking back to see if Dia was having any better luck, Ruby could see her older sister was slightly touching the bloodied keys of the piano. Dia looked as if her heart carried the weight of the world. A part of Ruby wanted to go and tell her it wasn’t her fault, but she knew no matter the words, Dia would only blame herself as she was the only one of the girls to walk away freely.

Ruby turned back to the shelves. As she glanced across each one, Ruby found a note jammed between the dictionaries. Pulling it out, it came to no surprise when it was covered in symbols as each one before it did.

÷;ædìÎDäs²^Ëù>ðc7É¸ÃY»P°ÖRà ã¼vÐjlzœ1àÃá?Œø1øOï4_7X48º|hÑsX5Ã¬ŽvÔ;ì¼YKšóŽ¿›àÇáLhÓ‡ÁØ"ÁŸwl?š©%ÀxwÙ<¯˜D¤‹ƒX1ù&—ÁûýÇbG£ôìEÀ°v%9¨ÊÊ‹D2–ŒŒºñÔ½LêmÃÇ/ãØc T25lIGxhc3QgdGltZS4KT3IgbWF5YmUgdGhlIGFjdHVhbCBmaXJzdCB0aW1lPwpJdCBkb2Vzbid0IG1hdHRlci4KSSBob3BlIHlvdSBlbmpveWVkIHlvdXIgbGl0dGxlIGpvdXJuZXkuClRoaXMgaXMgdGhlIGxhc3QgcGllY2UgeW91IG5lZWQgdG8gZnVsbHkgdW5kZXJzdGFuZCB3aGF0IGhhcHBlbmVkIHRvIGFsbCB0aGUgZ2lybHMuCkl0IG1pZ2h0IHJldmVhbCBzb21ldGhpbmcgeW91IGRpZG4ndCBrbm93IGFib3V0IHlldC4KCkhhdmUgZnVuOiBhSFIwY0hNNkx5OWtjbWwyWlM1bmIyOW5iR1V1WTI5dEwyWnBiR1V2WkM4eGFHcHdjVzV2Tm5WcVluRjRlSEJ5YkcwMmVHaFNlbmhOTjNKSFdXUk5kVlF2ZG1sbGR6OTFjM0E5YzJoaGNtbHVadz09 ½ŸzH˜ozs¯Ò/?‹ª'†º=úŒá]Åö»UçâÚQr×åzúÒ$³5F—$¥uÕ@E¬5Ïô>ËwR¹¨Ž/"@aÉy{„jKvÖõ·â„ûWÁ¾—ÌÜ©&ï«õ8¬^)›

Taking a hold of the paper, Ruby turned around to walk towards Dia. With the paper in hand, the young girl said aloud,

“I found one. Another one of those weird papers.”

Dia walked towards Ruby, grabbing the paper to examine it. Across it were the symbols written in messy black ink.

“I wonder what these letters are exactly. They’re just about everywhere, you would think they’d mean something.”

Ruby thought for a moment, she did find many of them around as she encountered each girl but with no way to solve them, she let them fade in her memory. Looking up towards her sister, Ruby asked,

“Do you think I should’ve saved them? I found them all over the place but I left some behind since they didn’t seem important.”

Ruby said her words with tears brimming her eyes. If they were a key to getting out, she would surely be stuck now. It would be nearly impossible to maneuver the maze once more to find all the notes again. Dia, however, rested her hand on Ruby’s shoulder to calm her,

“It’s fine, I’m sure. We don’t have a way to solve them anyway.”

Ruby nodded her head in agreeance. She dove into her pocket to see which notes she still had but as she did, her hand bumped into something she had long forgotten. Emptying the contents in her pockets, Ruby pulled out her axolotl keychain with her collected papers surrounding it.

“I forgot all about this little guy.”

Ruby took a moment to examine the toy as Dia watched her,

“I still think it was a strange gift. A frog would’ve been better. They do bring good luck and protection which we desperately could use.”

Ruby put down the keychain from her sight. As she tucked it back into her pocket, she couldn’t help but agree with Dia,

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Dia let out a sigh as she didn’t exactly want to remember anything from Yoshiko at the moment. She began to walk towards the door, calling back to Ruby.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Ruby let her papers she held drop to the floor. She knew she wouldn’t be needing them anymore since she didn’t even have all the pieces. At least they would be in an empty area. Jogging after Dia, they exited the room, closing the door behind them.

It didn’t take but a couple more feet before they reached the next door that Ruby knew so much about. Pointing her flashlight towards it, Ruby said over to Dia,

“That’s where I woke up.”

Dia, who had recalled watching Ruby begin her journey in that room, hummed in agreement. The older Kurosawa couldn’t help but let her mind wander as to how Ruby must’ve felt during her trials and tribulations. Dia was just as frightened waking up in a foreign place, it must’ve been a pure nightmare for her younger sister.

Neither of the girls stopped as they passed the door. They didn’t want to recall anymore traumatic experiences.

One thing did reoccur in Ruby’s memory though, the dead end up ahead. Yet, with the shine of a light, it seemed the hall had extended into a new path. Stopping in her tracks, Ruby looked back at how they got to the hallway they were in as well. The paths they had taken were once not there at all. It seemed the maze they traveled was constantly changing, fitting itself to be more challenging by the moment. It was all so confusing, yet fitting in some strange way. Dia noticed Ruby’s puzzled face before asking aloud,

“What’s wrong, Ruby?”

Rather than reflecting any longer on it, the young girl shook her head before turning back to the new hall.

“N-Nothing. Let’s just get out of here.”

Letting their shoes echo in the halls to fill their silent walk, they continued on. It wasn’t until there was a large thump towards the door in which Ruby woke up in.

Both Dia and Ruby turned towards the noise. Something kept hitting itself against the door, chipping away at the wooden frame. Whoever was behind it didn’t seem to have the time to simply pull the door, but rather they had to break it.

Both girls began to slowly back away until the door burst open. Letting out a scream, Dia and Ruby were stuck in place. With Ruby’s hand shakily still holding her flashlight, they could see a figure.

Standing before them, with a uniform freshly drenched in blood as well as bones protruding from her fair skin, Hanamaru looked at Ruby and Dia with tears in her eyes.

“Ruby-chan?”

It came out as faint as whisper, Ruby was almost uncertain she heard it. Taking a step backwards, Ruby shakily let out,

“H-Hanamaru-chan.”

Taking a look at her better, Ruby was able to notice that Hanamaru still had the chains on her arms and legs. She seemed to have finally been able to free herself but what scared Ruby was the amount of strength she had to have to do so while also still being able to move the metal door out of the way to escape. Something was also in Hanamaru’s hands but before she could question it, Hanamaru’s words were no longer whispers as she yelled out to Ruby,

“Why did you leave me!?”

The yell echoed throughout the hall, causing Dia and Ruby to take a step back. Ruby could feel herself beginning to tear up as she was finally confronted for quite possibly her worst decision she ever made towards her best friend. Dia, however, whispered under her breath as she looked Hanamaru up and down,

“How did she escape?”

Hanamaru began to take a step forward, shocking the girls as she never dropped the volume in her voice,

“I was asking for food! And you just left me there to die, zura!”

The brown-haired girl was blinded by her rage as she threw the object in her hands in front of the girls. Ruby saw as it wasn’t just any object, but rather a flurry of hair. With it finally stopping in front of them, the Kurosawa sisters could feel an unpleasant uprising in their stomachs as they recognized just who it belonged to. With her eyes still missing from her sockets, Riko’s head laid tilted on its side, blood beginning to pool around it as it was freshly detached from the source.

“I thought we were friends.”

Hanamaru whispered her words as she looked down at the head before the two girls. With anger to quickly replace the melancholy in her voice, Hanamaru locked eyes with Ruby. They stared at one another and it was then Ruby realized, that wasn’t Hanamaru anymore. Taking a step back, Hanamaru continued forward. This time, booming the halls once more with her voice,

“I thought we were friends!”

With her last word, the brown-haired girl took off. It didn’t take but a moment for the girls to react the same. Ruby led them as she shined her light down the hall. She hadn’t ever been to the other side so she wasn’t sure what could appear from the corner. Dia, who was catching up to Ruby rapidly, tried giving words of encouragement for her to run faster,

“Keep going, Ruby! Don’t look back and we’ll make it out.”

Ruby felt as if there were bricks in her lungs and chains on her feet. Everything was becoming far too much for her. She let out in bated breath,

“I-I don’t think I can. I’ve been running all day, onee-chan. I don’t want to do this anymore.”

Dia could see her younger sister beginning to give up as her pace steadily decreased. The older Kurosawa quickly tried to calm her,

“Come on, Ruby! You’ve come this far, you can’t stop now. I’ll carry you if you really need it, just don’t give up!”

Ruby closed her eyes as she ran past the pain she felt. She couldn’t let Dia be slowed down by her, it would guarantee they were caught. Her legs were screaming in pain but she couldn’t stop here when she had made it so far. Looking forward, Ruby had noticed a turn coming up ahead. Each new thing that came up couldn’t put ease to her mind though as it could lead to a dead end.

Taking the turn, Ruby saw the blinding lights of a larger room. As the room got closer though, she could still hear the rampant footsteps of Hanamaru continuously chasing them, never slowing down. Turning off her flashlight, Ruby gripped it tightly as if it were a stress ball to focus all of her pain into.

Entering the room, Ruby didn’t have much time to look around as she immediately found her exit. Two halls were presented before her however, one door had a sign above it. In fading lights, ‘Aqours’ appeared before the group of girls, acting as a guide to them.

Entering the hall, Ruby realized the light was only bright in the main room. The halls were just dimly lit, barely enough to not have to use her flashlight.

By now, the twists and turns had started to become too much to the group. Each one silently hoped the other would give up but no one was willing to budge. Despite being behind Ruby, Dia was the first to notice a light coming from a doorway. It looked like the final stretch they needed to hopefully find a way to separate Hanamaru from them.

“Ruby, look, up ahead!”

Dia called out to her sister. As the young girl looked up, she could feel her heart clench in relief as she didn’t know how much longer she could force herself to run. Each breath was a stab to her lungs while her feet felt as if they were stepping on glass.

Knowing that her younger sister was running out of time, Dia looked back to see how far Hanamaru was from them. In their luck however, it seemed Hanamaru was still a good way behind them. Turning to face forward once more, Dia noticed she had accidently put a bit of space between her and Ruby.

As they came closer to the door, adrenaline rushed through each of the girls’ veins. It was their one chance of an end, whether to their own story or simply this single chapter in their life.

Ruby was the first one to step into the new room. As soon as her body passed the door frame though, all she could feel was the wind behind her as a large iron door skidded her achilles heel.

As the door hit the floor, the force of its weight threw Ruby to the ground. With her flashlight out of her hands, she quickly propped herself up, looking back at the now shut door.

“Onee-chan!”

Ruby yelled out but in response all she heard was a muffled,

“Ruby!”

Getting up, Ruby scratched the door’s surface, attempting to find a handle or even a single bolt to pry the door open but the metal was cold against her fingertips.

Slamming her fists at the door, Ruby continued to yell out, to let Dia know she was on the other side. And though both girls tried their hand at opening the entrance, the door proved to be an unbeatable force.

It wasn’t before a large thump vibrated against her hands that she realized it was too late. Ruby already knew what was happening as she heard Dia’s agonizing screams of pain. The older girl’s voice cracked as she filled the halls with her cries. Ruby felt as if her heart had been pierced with a fresh blade. She began to slam harder against the door, desperately trying to get her best friend’s attention,

“Hanamaru-chan, stop! Please, I’m begging you!”

Ruby yelled out in tears as she hit the door with everything she had. Hanamaru didn’t listen though as her moans of pleasure were louder than Ruby’s cries. With every moment, less and less could be heard from Dia. With a final yell, Dia called out to Ruby,

“Ruby, I’m so sorry.”

Each syllable fell more silent as she ended her sentence. Ruby could hear Dia attempt to fight Hanamaru back as soft blows muffled through the door but each punch became weaker as Hanamaru continued on.

Everything in the young Kurosawa wanted to yell back to her, to let Dia know she loved her or that it wasn’t her fault but her words were caught in her throat as she finally fell silent along with her sister.

Placing her hands over her head, Ruby could only hear the soft noises of Hanamaru eating. She couldn’t tell if she finally ran out of tears but as she lied on the cold floor, Ruby could feel nothing. It was as if someone had taken away her last fighting breath. The one person she believed could solve everything was nothing more.

“Why is this happening?”

It was all Ruby could whisper as she stared at the floor in front of her. However, laughter soon filled her ears, as if amused by her question. It was a laugh she knew all too well, a laugh that brought goosebumps to her skin.

Ruby’s hands went straight to the ground to steady herself up. It was just the girl she couldn’t stand the thought of, yet plagued her mind with each passing second.

Turning her head to the source of the noise, a single light was all Ruby could see. However, sparks began to light across the room, illuminating the area.

The dramatics of a light show finally revealed Yoshiko to Ruby. She stood before her in a black dress. The bottom was ripped off, stopping just above her knees, as if she had taken a blade to a seemingly long dress. Along her arms, Yoshiko sported long black gloves as they reached up just above her elbows. She wore no shoes though as her feet were bare against the ground. To top her off, a single black feather rested in her bun. Yoshiko looked fairly roughed up. Her dress was slightly ruffled while pieces of her hair stuck out. It was as if she had been waiting for this moment for so long.

Just like always, Yoshiko stood in her signature pose with her right hand over her eye and her left hand holding it up. With her eyes closed, Yoshiko let out in her deep calming voice,

“Hello, little demon Ruby.”

Opening her eyes, Yoshiko couldn’t help the smug look on her face as she saw Ruby’s eyes filled with tears.

“It’s nice to finally see you again, in person.”

Ruby’s eyebrows were furrowed as she tried her hardest to look hateful towards the girl in front of her that caused her so much hell. However, with so many emotions going through her body, she couldn’t help but let her tears fall as she was greeted by the fallen angel. Balling her fist, Ruby whispered under her breath,

“Yoshiko.”

Yoshiko broke from her pose. She slowly walked towards Ruby, smiling as she got closer to the distraught girl on the floor before her.

“I’ve gotta say, I’m impressed you managed to survive out there in my unstable world. Yes, my world.”

Yoshiko was sure to emphasize her possession of the world, even poking her own chest as she said it.

“I created everything you see around you now. It wasn’t easy, you know. It took time and strategic planning to orchestrate this beauty you see before you, and I’m not talking about myself.”

The fallen angel laughed at her attempt at a joke. It fell to deaf ears though as Ruby hadn’t broken her line of sight since Yoshiko began walking towards her.

“Luckily, time works differently around here. What would have taken months or even years to finish was easily achieved in but a few mortal hours. Do you want to know the best part too?”

Yoshiko questioned Ruby. She knew she wasn’t going to get a response though as she continued on, boasting about herself as long as she could,

“I can move time in here as well. While you slept in my world for a day, the real world hasn’t seen any of us for months. At this point, the police have long given up on the thought of any of us returning. No one’s even looking anymore, they’re just telling everyone that to give them false hope until they forget about all of this. In a few months, they won’t miss us, but most importantly, they won’t miss you.”

Yoshiko smiled, showing her sharp canines. She was but a few steps from Ruby. She loved her slow pace at which she was reaching the girl, it was just like everything she imagined as she saw the fear in the young girl's eyes.

“But enough about all of that, let’s change the subject, shall we?”

As her feet tapped the floor, Yoshiko finally stood before Ruby, looking down at her. She slowly lowered herself, placing her hand on the ground to steady her body. Yoshiko was at eye level with Ruby as she spoke to her,

“Isn’t it a shame Dia-san couldn’t make it? She was so close too.”

Hearing her sister's name fall from Yoshiko’s mouth brought nothing but anger in Ruby’s soul. The fallen angel loved how easy the red-haired girl was to read. She wanted to see how much more she could push her.

“It’s too bad she got locked out with Zuramaru too, of all people. If only she didn’t slow down for,”

Yoshiko brought her hand from the floor, with dirt still trailing on her silk black gloves. Tapping Ruby’s nose, Yoshiko whispered aloud,

“You.”

Ruby balled her fists, scratching her skin against the floor. Anything to get her mind off the pain the thought of her sister brought to her heart. Yoshiko simply laughed at her attempt to compose herself. Standing up from her previous position, the fallen angel looked down at Ruby again, knowing exactly what to say to break her,

“Well, I won’t miss her.”

Yoshiko smiled, almost puffing out her chest with how proud she was of her words. She had longed to say these things since the moment the older Kurosawa brought literal hell to her life.

Ruby couldn’t let Yoshiko talk about her sister like that. Not ever in the young girl's life had she been so furious. Getting up from the floor, Ruby stood on her shaky legs, getting her stance correct.

As she finally gained her strength, Ruby took a step towards Yoshiko.

“Oh?”

The fallen angel questioned Ruby’s sudden courage, almost laughing at how serious she looked. As if she could see it a mile away, Yoshiko stepped to the side as Ruby threw her fist towards her. The young girl had all of her strength into her punch, causing her to stumble forward after she missed her target.

Before Ruby could turn back to Yoshiko though, the fallen angel already had different plans. Yoshiko kicked at the back of the smaller girl, causing her to fall to the ground.

Ruby quickly tried to get up, to not let Yoshiko have the upper hand, but with her strength barely holding on by a wire, she was too late.

It took but a simple step before Yoshiko’s foot was over Ruby’s back, putting pressure on her spine.

“Oh, so you want to fight me, huh?”

Giving a little push, Ruby’s air was forced out of her as she wheezed in pain. In her batten breath though, she turned to look at Yoshiko,

“Y-You monster. Why are you doing this?”

To silence Ruby from talking, Yoshiko moved her foot upward from her back, making sure to fully step onto Ruby, to the top of her head. Placing her heel on Ruby’s skull, Yoshiko was sure to push her face harshly against the ground. And though the fallen angel wanted to be as poised as she could, agitation still ran through her veins as she asked out,

“That didn’t answer my question, so I’ll ask again: do you want to fight me?”

Ruby didn’t have to think about her answer however,

“I’m not gonna fight you.”

Ruby clenched her fist in anger, her fingernails scratched at the hard floor below her as she thought of everyone she had lost and everyone who was still suffering their eternal hell within the walls Yoshiko created. Her sick game had gone on for far too long.

“I’m gonna kill you, Yoshiko.”

Hearing her real name angered Yoshiko beyond belief. Taking her foot off Ruby, she slammed it to the ground, shaking the floor before her voice boomed within the room,

“It’s Yohane! Nobody calls me that here!”

With Yoshiko’s voice being so loud, Ruby brought her hands to her ears while closing her eyes. As Yoshiko’s voice fell to echoes, Ruby peeked only to see her looking up directly at the fallen angel. She stood over her with a frown etched into her face as she let out in her alternate persona’s voice,

“Fine, we’ll fight, but not fairly. Or at least,”

Yoshiko let her sentence trail off as she stepped back from Ruby. She smiled down upon her as large black wings stretched out behind Yoshiko. The size was easily 6 feet in length, if Ruby could guess. Her feathers ruffled, as if they hadn’t been used for a while, resting and waiting for their moment to shine. Ruby looked up at Yoshiko in shock as she wouldn’t have even guessed there was anything behind her with how well they were hidden. The fallen angel smiled at Ruby’s expression.

“Not anymore.”

Grabbing her feather from her bun, Yoshiko flicked her wrist. The once smooth feather turned into a black blade within her hands. With a single jump, Yoshiko used her wings to take her into the air. Ruby covered her eyes to stop the dirt from hitting her as Yoshiko’s wings let out a powerful gust in her absence. The room went completely black for a moment before flames rose from all around the two girls.

Lowering her hand, Ruby was finally able to see her surroundings. She stood on a single circular platform, as a pentagram was inscribed into the ground below her. All around her, on the edges of the platform, were large pillars for the fires to light the battleground.

It didn’t take long before Yoshiko swooped down towards Ruby. Luckily, it didn’t seem like Yoshiko was entirely used to her wings as Ruby was able to avoid her blade. With the fallen angel’s wings being so large, wind blew all across the floor, even lifting up some of the dirt that laid there.

Yoshiko however continued to go towards Ruby, not taking a moment to spare. Despite the young girl being able to dodge the attacks, she knew she couldn’t for long as her adrenaline could only give her so much strength.

Dodging Yoshiko’s continuous attempts to strike her, Ruby thought of a plan she could use. As she searched the area around her, it was obvious she couldn’t remove one of the fire stands as they were built in concrete. Scanning the area more though, a metal shined against the flames of the fire.

The flashlight.

Ruby had long forgotten the light after she had dropped it. Running towards it, Yoshiko continued her sweeps down towards her. Having to stop every so often caused problems with her plan as she continued to lose progress, taking her backwards in order to avoid Yoshiko’s strikes. Knowing she wasn’t going to get anywhere with that, Ruby let out a silent prayer as she took a chance.

Running at full speed, Ruby ran forward. Yoshiko had just missed her attack, giving her this one moment.

The young girl felt shivers down her spine, as if someone were right behind her. Jumping forward, Ruby reached out towards the light. The speed at which she was running however, caused her to skid father than she would have liked.

With the flashlight in her hands though, Ruby looked up to see she was merely a few inches from the edge. She quickly rolled away from it before looking upwards. Yoshiko was already flying towards her, smiling as she saw how close to the edge Ruby was. A simple gust of wind would easily knock her off the platform.

Before Yoshiko could get any closer though, Ruby quickly sat up. Flashlight fumbling in her hands, Ruby gripped the edge before taking aim at the fallen angel before her.

As Ruby let the flashlight slip from her grip towards Yoshiko, she closed her eyes. She knew if she didn’t hit her target, the other girl surely would. To her luck though, all that was heard was a thump followed by a tumble on the ground.

Just like with Dia, Ruby’s aim was perfect. Ruby opened her eyes as she saw Yoshiko looking up at the sky from her position on the ground with dazed eyes. Her dress’ laces were falling apart from the seams as her pale skin sported obvious signs of road rash.

Yoshiko reached her hands to her head before quickly looking at the ground, panicked. As if Ruby understood, she too looked around. Yoshiko’s blade was gone.

They both stood to their feet in search of it. Ruby’s eyes caught it first though as she began running towards the shining knife on the ground.

Yoshiko wasn’t going to give it up that easy though, she ran towards Ruby.

The young girl was so exhausted from everything, it didn’t take long before Yoshiko locked her arms around Ruby’s head while circling her leg around her. Ruby reached out her hands though in an attempt to break herself from Yoshiko’s grip. The fallen angel simply laughed at her pitiful struggles before whispering in her ear,

“Up we go.”

Spreading her wings out, Yoshiko took Ruby into the air with her.

Ruby held on tight to Yoshiko as she was taken from the ground. Her feet dangled below her as the platform became smaller and smaller.

With her heart going into overdrive, Ruby yelled out to Yoshiko in a trembling voice,

“Yoshiko, stop it! Let me go!”

Yoshiko couldn’t help the anger leaking from her voice as she yelled out,

“I’ve already told you, it’s Yohane!”

Taking out her anger in Ruby, Yoshiko held tightly onto the young girl, digging her nails into her. Yelling out in pain, Ruby’s eyes were filled with tears.

“Stop it, let me go!”

The taller girl simply laughed as she quickly let go of Ruby, only to grab her by a single hand. The young girl, who could feel herself slipping from Yoshiko’s grasp, grabbed her other hand onto the girl above her. Her feet continued to kick in the air, as if searching for something to step upon. Looking up, Ruby was met with a smiling Yoshiko.

“If you really insist on me letting go, I guess I could.”

Ruby quickly held on tighter to Yoshiko’s hand before yelling out repeatedly,

“Wait!”

Yoshiko turned her head to the side as if she were an innocent puppy and not a girl attempting to drop another to their death.

“Yoshi-I mean- Yohane, please don't do it! Let’s talk this out, I’m sure we can work something out. I’ll do anything, please.”

Yoshiko began to laugh at Ruby’s attempt to swindle her. She decided she’d play along though, she hadn’t had any fun in a while anyways. Lowering them both to the ground, Ruby was the first to touch the floor, quickly falling to her knees. Yoshiko lowered herself as well soon afterwards. The gust of wind settled around the both of them. Ruby’s hands were at her heart as she attempted to calm herself down. Yoshiko had her arms crossed over her though, already losing patience in their situation.

“So, you want to talk it out? Well, start talking then. Make me an offer I can’t refuse.”

Ruby sat on the ground trembling as she really had thought those were her last moments. Her eyes danced across the ground as she pondered her thoughts. She knew she couldn’t truly negotiate with Yoshiko. Yoshiko would just trick her into suffering a fate worse than death after all the problems she had caused. Ruby also knew the knife was too far away from her now to get to it in time, it was too high of a risk.

It took but a single moment for time to stop for Ruby, one thought constantly crossed her mind when she was in Yoshiko’s world. How she wanted so badly to leave and go back home to normal. But the only problem was, there was no more normal. Yoshiko had taken every person she held so dear to her heart and left them to suffer, wandering the halls whether physically or now in spirit. Dia nor the rest of the Aqours members would ever be at rest now because of everything Yoshiko had done.

Before Ruby knew it, her tears were already streaming down her face as she looked up at Yoshiko.

“Oh, so now you have nothing to say? First you wanted to talk but now you shut up?”

Yoshiko was beyond annoyed with Ruby by now. The one person who defied all of her rules and still called her by her name left a sour taste in her mouth.

Ruby got up, quickly masking every thought she previously had behind a smile.

“I just realized, I never got to thank you for this amazing gift, Yohane.”

Ruby dug into her pockets, pulling out her keychain she had held close to her for her entire journey. She placed it into the palm of her own hand, as if showing it off to Yoshiko. The taller girl looked down at the keychain in between the both of them confused.

“Oh, uh, you’re welcome? What does that have to do with anything?”

Ruby could only smile as she brought her right hand to Yoshiko’s arm. The sudden touch threw the fallen angel off guard.

“Hey! What are you-“

Before she could finish though, Ruby, with her ever so present smile, cut her off.

“You know, it was the perfect gift. Even now it’s my greatest present.”

Ruby’s hand tightened against Yoshiko, causing the girl to gasp in shock. Taking a step back to get away, Ruby took her chance. Using everything she had, she took her step forward, entering Yoshiko’s personal space as she slammed the keychain into Yoshiko’s eye.

Though the fallen angel saw it coming at the last minute, her reaction was not fast enough as Ruby’s hands slipped past her fingers.

Ruby didn’t have time to push it any farther as Yoshiko had already pushed her back. As Ruby fell to the ground, blood ran down her hand she used.

Yoshiko’s hands went to her eye, wanting to comfort it but with the chain lodged in there, it caused more pain with each soft touch.

Ruby got up from the ground, smiling at what she had done. Finally, even if things didn’t go as planned, at least in some way she made Yoshiko suffer.

Yoshiko backed away from Ruby more. With her body hunched over and her blood dripping onto her hands, she whispered to herself,

“No, this wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Shooting her head up, Ruby got to see Yoshiko face to face. Her eyelids attempted to close around the chain in her cranium, keeping it in place as her blood continued to pour down her face, almost as if they were her tears. Her hands as well as her dress were freshly drenched. She no longer looked composed and in control.

“What did you do, Ruby?”

As Yoshiko asked her question, both the girls began to hear large objects falling from all around. They both looked to see the world they stood in slowly falling apart. The concrete pillars that held the fires were falling down into the nothingness below them. The floor began to crack below their feet as black ashes fell like snow all around.

Yoshiko was filled with rage as she saw what was happening all around. Her perfectly unstable world had come to its end because of a simple mistake she made.

With Ruby distracted looking at the crumbling world, Yoshiko ran towards the blade that had been forgotten by the two. Swiftly picking it up from the ground, Yoshiko ran towards Ruby.

Jumping up, Yoshiko tackled Ruby to the ground. Despite the fires around them falling from sight, the ones that remained sparked higher than before as the battle was finally coming to its climax.

With Yoshiko on top of Ruby, the fallen angel took both of her hands, holding onto the handle of the blade, before bringing it down onto Ruby. The young girl was just able to grab Yoshiko’s wrists however, keeping the blade just a mere few inches from her face. With Yoshiko looking down at her, blood began to trail from her face. It flowed as gravity brought it down, dripping onto Ruby.

Ruby’s eyes, which had been focused on the blade, looked up to see Yoshiko struggling with everything she had. The girl above her began to lift herself up by her knees before trying to force the knife down to Ruby with her weight.

The red-haired girl was only able to stop Yoshiko’s great strength with her own elbows hitting the ground each time Yoshiko pushed down on her. With so much force being used, the keychain that had been stuck in Yoshiko fell out, hitting Ruby, leaving even more trails of blood onto her face.

With the knife still not reaching its target each time, it led Yoshiko to grow more and more hatred towards Ruby. The smaller girl just wouldn’t give up.

Spreading her wings out, the massive length of them covered the light from the flames that were spiraling all around. Yoshiko couldn’t help her own voice from cracking as she yelled out,

“This is all your fucking fault.”

Yoshiko spit out her words as she attempted to force the knife down harder, letting her anger drive her strength,

“If you just would have stuck to your useless self, none of this would have happened! I could've finally been happy for once!”

With both of the girls shaking to keep the knife from themselves, Yoshiko finally smiled at the girl below her,

“Well guess what Ruby? If I’m going to hell, you’re coming with me.”

By now, all the noises Ruby had been making were from the grunts of her struggling to keep the blade between them at bay. However, hearing from Yoshiko that she was the one to blame angered the smaller girl.

“This is my fault?!”

Ruby couldn’t believe the words coming from her.

“You’re the only one to blame! You and your fallen angel shtick caused all of this! You killed our friends!”

Ruby didn’t want to say the words, as it meant they were truly real, but she couldn’t help herself as she yelled out in tears,

“You killed my sister!”

All of the anger came rushing back to Ruby. With everything she had, she pushed Yoshiko off of her. The knife fell from her hands once more.

Ruby was the first to get up, quickly grabbing the knife. Yoshiko soon got up as well but she was too late as Ruby was already before her.

Yoshiko didn’t want to run, as it seemed like such a cowardly thing to do. She would rather fight. However, with how she had hit the ground so many times within a short period, she regretted her decision soon after. She felt the blade she used for so long finally pierce her own skin as she just couldn’t coordinate where Ruby’s hands were in time.

Ruby held the blade into Yoshiko’s lower ribs, holding her body close to her. Slowly backing her to the edge of the platform, both girls took slow steps to push one another back but it was Ruby who was finally winning the fight. Yoshiko stopped them before they could reach the edge though. With her hand on top of Ruby’s to push it away from her ribs, the young girl finally let go of the blade.

Yoshiko held her hands onto the knife as it rested in her skin. Her dress had become drenched by then. She looked down at the torn fabric the blade was in before feeling a pair of hands on her shoulders. By the time she looked up, her feet were no longer on the ground. Yoshiko could only see the light of the flames that ignited her playground. With her one hand holding onto her wound, she reached her other out towards the girl who was quickly fading from her sight.

It was a bit too late to ask for help though.

Ruby looked down at where she stood. She could see the black feathers of Yoshiko’s wings trail behind her, falling off faster than the girl descended. She watched as her name finally fit her. Truly a fallen angel. While she had tried to reach back towards the heavens, the wings that were once given to Yoshiko simply faded as she did.

Ruby turned around, she didn’t want to spare her any pity. Looking around, the small girl saw as the flames around her quickly began fading. It finally occurred to her what was happening.

Running towards the center of the platform, Ruby picked up the last thing that was left from it all. Within her hands, she held on tightly to the bloodied keychain.

All around the girl, the flames died as the floor began to crack away in bigger chunks.

Ruby stood all alone as she watched the world crumble before her. She finally closed her eyes as she fell to her knees. Tears trailed down her face as she held onto her once precious gift. Whether it was truly from Yoshiko’s heart or Yohane’s, it did remind her of a better time. It was all she could ask for in her final moments.

Nothing had been kind to her within her final journey in life. Where there was once happiness or a chance at freedom, it was quickly taken away but a few short moments later. It hurt, but there was nothing more to do except accept fate.

The ground beneath Ruby that she kneeled upon soon fell through. There was no more light to guide her but rather an endless descend into nothingness.

At least in her final moments, she finally felt free.


	9. Hellfire

Thump. Thump. Thump.

A slow growing pain echoed within Yoshiko’s head. Her body felt like she had been thrown down a flight of stairs at least three times in a row as it hurt to even intake a single gulp of air. Every one of her muscles ached. As much as she wanted to roll over and sleep away her troubles, her mind wouldn’t allow that with the constant agonizing pain making itself known throughout her body.

Slowly getting up, Yoshiko groaned as she brought her shaky hand to her head. The world felt like it was spinning all around her. She couldn’t even see if that were true as once she opened her eyes, the world around her remained dark. She felt around to make sure she wasn’t still in her dreamland, but all she felt was the cold concrete floor beneath her fingertips.

In confusion, the young girl used what strength she had left to lift herself up to her feet carefully. Any sudden movements and she would be back on the floor where she started.

_‘How am I here?’_

Yoshiko’s thoughts ran rampant as she could still remember everything as clear as day. She remembered what she did to her friends, all of their disfigured faces crowded her mind along with the screams of terror that echoed those halls. Most importantly though, she remembered what Ruby did to her.

She thought back to it all. How could she let things get so far between Ruby and her. It was no wonder Ruby did what she had to.

As the fight played within her mind, Yoshiko tried to shut her eyes to stop its events from reoccurring. She pushed her hands against her face to stop herself but nothing was halting her repeated defeat. It was bad enough of what she did to get to that point, now she had to be reminded of how it all ended. Great.

It wasn’t until she remembered all the pain she had once felt. The tumbles, the scratches, the stabs that brought her to tears, were nothing more.

Patting herself down, Yoshiko couldn’t find any reminiscence of her fight with the red-haired girl.

Slowly bringing her hand to her stab wound below her ribs, Yoshiko was met with a soft fabric, much different than the dress she was once wearing. Feeling around at her outfit, she could tell the texture from anywhere. She was in her summer school uniform, yet she couldn’t recall ever changing into it.

Her hands moved up her body, feeling at her exposed skin for any traces of road burn from when she had fallen or welts from the strike of Ruby’s flashlight. Nothing but soft skin laid under her fingertips.

Quickly reaching towards her face, Yoshiko finally felt her eyes. Despite there being all darkness around her, her eye no longer bared the scar brought upon it by the simple keychain either. It was as if she had been restored to full health.

With nothing wrong with her, the young girl began to panic. She couldn’t see nor hear anything around her. There was no telling what could come to her. Yoshiko quickly called out in a nervous tone,

“Hello? Is anyone there?”

Nothing responded to her question. Fiddling for a moment, Yoshiko continued to yell out in hopes someone would respond,

“It’s me, Yoha-”

Yoshiko stopped herself. That name was once something so special to her. Her own self-made identity, yet after the events that unfolded, nothing in her wanted to be associated with it. She just didn’t want to be that person anymore, only the girl she used to be before this all. Taking a moment to breathe, Yoshiko softly said to the empty room,

“It’s me, Yoshiko.”

There was still no response. It felt as if the emptiness was laughing at her pitiful cries. Bunching her eyebrows together, Yoshiko brought her hands into fists before yelling out with everything she had,

“It’s Tsushima Yoshiko!”

Yet once more, there was no response. She took another breath to yell, but stopped midway. There was no point. If someone were truly there, they would have already responded. Rather than waiting for someone to come to her, the young girl decided to take matters into her own hands.

When taking her first steps, Yoshiko had already figured they wouldn’t be easy as her body was in a weakened state, yet her feet felt as if there were invisible chains attached to them. Each step was like taking a sixty pound weight with her.

It didn’t take but a moment later for Yoshiko to stop. She couldn’t see a point to continuing on either way.

The young girl sat back down, not even two steps from where she had started. She couldn’t help but think of everything that led to this. She brought so much pain and chaos to those around her, for what? Nothing they ever did could ever deserve a fate so cruel. Yet in that moment in time, Yoshiko didn’t see it that way.

Yohane was the one in charge of it all anyways, or so she’d like to blame.

The tears brimmed Yoshiko’s eyes as she sat in her spot on the floor while looking into the void. Before she could relive any more of what she did though, a white light appeared into the far distance.

It was the only thing that shined, it almost felt as if it were blinding her. Yoshiko placed her hands over her eyes to lessen the powerful light.

There were eight bodies in the distance, all side by side. None of them had any features to them. They were pure white entities that shined like stars. Yoshiko could make out that they were all wearing something similar though.

Squinting her eyes more, it looked like they were wearing school uniforms. It took but a moment for Yoshiko to realize they were her former friends. All of their years scattered between each other but Yoshiko could tell it was Ruby who led them with Dia by her side.

“Guys…”

Yoshiko whispered to herself. She couldn’t stop her tears if she tried as they fell with no restraint. Yoshiko let out in a cracked voice,

“I’m so sorry.”

They all stood with no reaction while Yoshiko tried to compose herself. As she watched them, they began to walk forward. Ruby and Dia were the ones to take the first step. A slight breeze hit her face as they did so.

As they lead, Yoshiko could see the rest of the girls follow by pairs of two. With each of their steps, the slight breeze turned into a mini storm. The wind continuously pushed Yoshiko back as she tried to remain grounded.

She slowly attempted to crawl backwards as they kept getting closer. While they had no features to signify if they were threatening or not, the young girl couldn’t help but think of the worst outcome as they came closer with each step.

Tears continued to stream down Yoshiko’s face from the force of the wind as well as her panicked state. She brought her hands to her face as she cried out against the force of their wind,

“I’m so sorry! Please, I didn’t mean for any of this to happen!”

Yoshiko knew it was a lost cause, but she continued to shield her eyes as she kept crying out to them.

The wind around her slowed down before she knew it. As she looked up, she saw all eight of the figures surrounding her. Yoshiko stared at their empty faces, knowing who each one of them were simply by the aura they gave.

Finally, Yoshiko’s eyes fell upon the white figure before her. It was Ruby. Quickly fumbling around, Yoshiko got to her knees as she put her hands together in prayer before Ruby,

“Ruby, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t mean for things to get so far. Please, forgive me.”

Yoshiko pleaded yet her words fell to deaf ears as the spirit before her made no movement. Yoshiko couldn’t help but become frustrated with the lack of communication.

Yoshiko laid her head on the floor before balling her fists, pounding at the concrete below her as her tears fell to the ground. She knew she couldn’t make up for what she did in any type of way. Not after everything was said and done. She should have done it before, when it all actually mattered. Though Yoshiko continued to whisper for forgiveness, she knew it would do nothing for her now.

Before Yoshiko could hit the floor again in anger, her wrists were taken hold of in the air. Quickly looking up, Yoshiko caught sight of a red and green tie before being forced onto her back. As her head hit the ground, her legs suddenly had hands upon them as well.

Yoshiko’s words were caught in her throat as everything was happening too fast. The once statue like spirits were now gathering around her, holding her down with ease as she tried to wiggle from their grasps.

Ruby stood in front of the remaining girls who gathered around, watching the show before them. She stepped between the spirits holding Yoshiko’s legs to stand right over her. As Ruby sat down on top of her, Yoshiko kept trying to say something, anything, to her, but her voice failed her. All that came out were sputters of an apology followed by pleads to stop. It was all barely coherent from Yoshiko’s frightened state.

Ruby looked down, watching Yoshiko below her. Moving her hand, she rested it at Yoshiko’s neck for a moment before slowly pressing down, squeezing at her windpipe. The young girl had already struggled for air but with Ruby taking the little she had left, Yoshiko began to toss and turn more rapidly in the other girls’ grasps. Her tears hadn’t stopped flowing as she knew what was happening.

She had done it to all of them. She was bound to get what she deserved.

The pain that was once gone for but a moment, now flowed through her body all at once. Nothing more surrounded Yoshiko as everything was already done. She was left to the dark emptiness of her own personal hell as she bore the scars of what she did to the others. The spirits that brought the young girl her final punishment were finally able to move on. They could rest easily now knowing Yoshiko’s sins washed upon the surface for all to see and none to forget.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading 'Love Live! Hellfire!!'. We hope you have enjoyed it.
> 
> This project has been in the works for a year and a couple months. Lydia and I tried our best to make this fanfiction into something exciting and hopefully our readers see and appreciate the hard work that went into it.
> 
> While this has been our first creation, we have plans to continue working together on other projects.
> 
> Again, thank you so much for reading our fanfiction and we sincerely hope our hard work and planning out this fanfiction was worth it and you, the reader, enjoyed it!
> 
> If you're interested in what we do, please visit our website dedicated to it. On there, you will find more information about us: https://yousobros.gamejolt.io/


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